Traveling to Spain with my Syrian wife

[Andrewhesketh]

Hi all

Looking for some advice here.

I am British and I just took a job in Spain.

My wife is Syrian but is currently in the UK on a family visit visa staying with my parents.

We have been married for 3 years and just left Dubai where we lived.

The Spanish consulate wont accept her application to come to Spain to be with me in London because she is not a resident In the UK and have said she needs to go to Syria to apply. However going to Syria is not an option as she has no family left there and it's bloody dangerous. This creates the predicament.

FYI she has been issued a VISA for Spain previously for a holiday.

So if there a way around this? I see some people have just turned up at the boarder with their wives and they have let them in?


Does anyone have any advice?

[dan1988uk]

Hi all

Looking for some advice here.

I am British and I just took a job in Spain.

My wife is Syrian but is currently in the UK on a family visit visa staying with my parents.

We have been married for 3 years and just left Dubai where we lived.

The Spanish consulate wont accept her application to come to Spain to be with me in London because she is not a resident In the UK and have said she needs to go to Syria to apply. However going to Syria is not an option as she has no family left there and it's bloody dangerous. This creates the predicament.

FYI she has been issued a VISA for Spain previously for a holiday.

So if there a way around this? I see some people have just turned up at the boarder with their wives and they have let them in?


Does anyone have any advice?

The directive says that:

"There is no legal requirement that:

The EU citizen is already (or will be) living or working in a different EU member state
The non-EU family member holds a specific immigration visa or status. It is fine for them to have a nationally issued visa or a student visa or a visitor’s visa or even implied status
The family member apply in their country of origin
The family member resides or previously resided in the EU/EEA (This older requirement of some member states was overturned in several ECJ cases, especially Metock)"

Is your wife's visa still valid and not expired? In that case the Spanish embassy is going against the directive, if you can not let them understand that they are wrong apply for a Schengen Visa in any other embassy, travel to that country first (to avoid being questioned) and fly from there to Spain. I suggest you German embassy in London, I have spoken to them and it seems that they know well about the directive for family members.

[mgb]

Article 5 of the directive 2004/38 give the right of entry without precondition where the journey has to start.
Article 134 of the schengen convention give community law priority.
The directive 2004/38 is community law and therefore overwrite schengen law.

[WorldDreamer]

We're both in the same boat
You may see the same situation in my post I wrote recently.

Although after using "Your Europe Advice" our application was accepted by Spanish consulate in Quito, but we're still waiting for the decision...
Applying to Germans didn't help us
But in London you have many other options.
You may even try to use Eurostar without visa.