Long wait for appointment for Family Reunification Visa

[Hmminator]

Hello,

I am an EU citizen (British) and my Filipina wife-to-be and I are planning to move to Spain after we get married in August.

Unfortunately the website for the Spanish embassy in Manila is saying that no appointments to apply for long term visas are available until October!

This is a big problem for us as I have a job starting in Spain in September. I know that as part of Directive 2004/38/EC foreign embassies are supposed to provide an accelerated process for visa applications from spouses of EU nationals so do I have any right to demand a faster appointment? A three month wait just for an appointment seems unreasonable.

Any help or advice with this would be much appreciated.

[vinny]

Spouses of EU citizens may present their visa applications directly at the Consulate General of Spain without an appointment on Fridays from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.

[Hmminator]

Oh good, that information isn't on the VFS Global website. Thanks very much!

[liksah]

As far as I understand you are not eligible for a family reunification visa. That's either for Spanish nationals living in Spain or 3rd country nationals who are living in Spain and want to bring over their family members.

You would need to apply for an article 10 residence card. This is because your "move" falls under EU free movement (at the moment, Britain is still in the EU). So your wife will probably get a short term visa to enter Spain and then apply for an article 10 residence card while living in Spain.

Perhaps it's also an easier process for you because the short term visa is issued quickly and then you can take care of these formalities once you are in Spain and the process continues while you are in country.

[noajthan]

This may help:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/citizen/doc ... 013_en.pdf

Don't forget Filipinas need to go through the CFO PDOS programme in order to leave the Philippines as a spouse or fiancee.
http://www.cfo.gov.ph/index.php?option= ... Itemid=833