The purpose of Surinder Singh is not "Here is a shortcut to the UK Immigration rules".CR001 wrote:You seem to be missing the point of Surinder Singh and the recent changes completely.
The purpose of the SS judgment was that if a British citizen exercised freedom of movement in the rest of the EU with their family, they should not be worse off when they return to the UK.
So, for the SS route to work, two things must occur simultaneously
a) The British citizen must be exercising treaty rights in another EEA member state.
b) The family member must be staying with them in that other EEA member state
Then, when the British citizen returns to the UK, s/he is treated as another EEA citizen for the purposes of the EEA Regulations. This is EU law, not including all the trimming of the UK's interpretation of SS.
So, if either your wife is not exercising treaty rights or she is not living with you (she only needs to be living in the same country as you, not the same house), the SS route does not work for you.
Your rights in the rest of the EU are entirely dependent on your British citizen wife exercising treaty rights in that member-state. If she moves to another member-state permanently, you lose your rights in your first member-state (if you have not acquired PR by then).
