Dual (British/Irish) citizenship and marriage to non-EEA

[pinksoir]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question but I don't know where else to put it.

I have dual Irish-British citizenship, was born and always lived in Ireland, but always travelled with my British passport. My wife (who is Chinese) and I got married in China and have since travelled to Spain where we are planning to live and work. Our marriage is registered as between a British citizen and a Chinese citizen as I used my British passport to register the marriage. I had my Irish passport with me, but because I had entered China on my British one, and hence was legally present in the country as a British citizen, this was the only option.

With the looming of a possible Brexit, I'm wondering how I might go about changing my status on the certificate. Is it possible to have the Irish embassy identify me as the same person? What is the legal status of dual citizenship when it comes to marriage in the EU?

Thanks in advance, I hope someone can help.

[noajthan]

Maybe no need to worry.

In my understanding a Marriage Certificate (mc) is a record of event, similar to Adoption, Birth and Naturalisation certificates.
You don't go back and change such documents just because some detail has changed over time (eg not even for a name or marital status change).

Assuming you use and have same name on both passports it should be obvious who you are.
(Don't think my mc even states the nationalities on it).
You are still demonstrably a dual citizen by virtue of passports as evidence.
So you can still show any authorities that your wife is married to an EEA national if that's your concern.

And any Brexit is not going to affect the CTA that British and Irish citizens enjoy;
Brexit is not about leaving the CTA and that's covered by a different legal framework anyway.

As you appear to be on a Surinder Singh trajectory you should still be able to return to Eire as a proxy EEA natonal.
And if you went to UK you should be treated as an EEA national too unless SS is blown out of the water or changed out of all recognition by some domestic law.

(SS is part of EEA and my understanding is Brexit is about leaving EU, not necessarily EEA - but let's not go there in this thread).

[pinksoir]

Thanks for the reply. We're not really looking to do SS at this time, but maybe in the future, so that wasn't really a consideration. It was more a worry over the process of proving I'm the same person and so entitled to exercise my EU Treaty rights, possibility of having to reissue of marriage certs, etc. If that's not an issue, or if it's a simple enough process, then I'm happy.

The thing is that China isn't part of the Hague Apostille agreement, so the mc had to be legalised by the Spanish embassy in China for it to be recognised in Spain. Our Chinese marriage books (they use individual red books for each person) state my passport number and nationality, and dual citizenship isn't recognised in China so I couldn't put down my Irish details. That said, when I am issued with a new passport once the current one expires (in 7-8 years) my passport number will change, so you are right that it can't be tied to a specific detail that may change over time.

My main concern is in being able to prove that my wife is married to an EU or EEA citizen (should the UK leave), and thus that we have a right to live together. I have found bureaucracy in Spain to be messy, so anything that can possibly cause confusion would be best avoided! If it's a case of being able to prove I'm a dual citizen through the possession of both passports, then that's ok.

As regards Brexit and freedom of movement, yes I'm sure that if it does come to pass that negotiations will result in a Norway/Switzerland type EEA situation. So I'm not too concerned, but am just looking at my options for any eventuality.

[noajthan]

Thanks for the reply. We're not really looking to do SS at this time, but maybe in the future, so that wasn't really a consideration. It was more a worry over the process of proving I'm the same person and so entitled to exercise my EU Treaty rights, possibility of having to reissue of marriage certs, etc. If that's not an issue, or if it's a simple enough process, then I'm happy.
...

My main concern is in being able to prove that my wife is married to an EU or EEA citizen (should the UK leave), and thus that we have a right to live together. I have found bureaucracy in Spain to be messy, so anything that can possibly cause confusion would be best avoided! If it's a case of being able to prove I'm a dual citizen through the possession of both passports, then that's ok.

As regards Brexit and freedom of movement, yes I'm sure that if it does come to pass that negotiations will result in a Norway/Switzerland type EEA situation. So I'm not too concerned, but am just looking at my options for any eventuality.

Very prudent to have the foresight to dig into these matters. A lesson there for all of us.

Once you start on road to residency in Spain you will have established a papertrail and facts of your relationship.
Hopefully you will have that in place before any looming Brexit which pundits seem to think would take two years or more to implement at least.

Its a longshot, but, as I understand it, Spanish law is based on notarised affidavits (at least Philippine law "derived from Hispanic law" appears to be so). So perhaps an appropriately worded affidavit drawn up in Spain and detailing the facts of your dual nationality as a matter of record could help?
Worth looking into.

[pinksoir]

Yes, notarised affidavits are the order of the day here. I'll look into that. It seems never to be as easy as providing supporting documentation, that documentation must be accompanied by some sort of notarisation/legalisation. It's probably a good idea to have a lawyer draft something like that up, at least then it'll be easier for boxes to be ticked in the future, come what may.

Thanks very much for the help.