Help pls! Mexican, EU citizen, United Kingdom, Marriage.

[miguelcm]

Hi Guys,

I've been trying to find some information about my situation and i cant find any specific answer for my question.

INFO:

Myself: Portuguese (Eu Citizen) living and working in Uk since 2016. (Full employed, salary more than 20k)

My girlfriend: Mexican (can come to uk wihout any visa up to 6 months), she lived in uk last year for a couple of months to do the IELTS exame.

Shes coming to the Uk next month (May/2018) to stay with me up to 6 months. We are going to get married in Portugal (July 2018) where we will get a marriage certificate in English and get back to the uk.

Questions:

1- Can She come to the uk without a return ticket to Mexico?

2 - What we need to do after we get married to live/stay together in the uk for more than 6 months and allow her to work?

Thank you.

[at12]

Hi,
Others will correct me if I am wrong but I think that extended family members (your girlfriend) do not have an automatic right of residence, whereas spouses have.
So if she enters the UK in May this will be as a tourist and as such the border force might like to see a return ticket.
That does not apply once you are married, she will then have automatic rights to live with you here in the UK. Once you are back here after marrying she can apply for a EEA residence permit. Look for EEA FM form and guidance:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... orm-eea-fm

The other option is for her to apply for an extended family member permit before coming to the UK. In this case there would be no need for a return ticket. I've no idea how long those take to be processed but I doubt you would have time for that if she is planning to be here in a few weeks!
https://www.gov.uk/family-permit

[miguelcm]

Hi,

Sorry for my latest reply, ive been very busy.

Thank you for relying to my questions, it was very helpful.


1) "So if she enters the UK in May this will be as a tourist and as such the border force might like to see a return ticket." -> She has tickets to other european countries on her first arrival to the Uk, not a problem at all then

2) "That does not apply once you are married, she will then have automatic rights to live with you here in the UK. Once you are back here after marrying she can apply for a EEA residence permit." -

2a)the fully transalted marriage certificate will be enough to enter in the uk without a return ticket to apply for the EEA residence permit afterwards?
2b)She will need to go back within 6 months even if she's married with a EEA citizen?


3) If the answer to the question 2a) is yes, she will need to go back within 6 months while waiting for the EEA residence permit card?

By the end of July we will apply for the residence card as the family member of a EEA national hoping everything's gonna be ok!!

[at12]

2a. In Theory yes. The other (perhaps safer and gives more peace of mind) option is to apply for a family permit from outside the UK. In Lisbon, 90% of the cases are dealt with within 15 days according to: https://www.gov.uk/visa-processing-times (select Lisbon, other non-settlement visas, EEA Family Permit
I guess it is up to you to decide if it is worth waiting or not.
This service is free, more info: https://www.gov.uk/family-permit

2b. no, she can stay in the UK while she her RC application is being assessed. This is the first thing you should do once you enter the UK whether you are entering with the marriage certificate or a family permit. If you are married they are going to send a "certificate of application" within 3-4 weeks of receiving your application confirming that she is allowed to work in the UK (check the timeline thread to see how long people are currently waiting for this document).
If she gets a family permit before entering the UK then I think she is allowed to work from the moment she enters the UK. A discussion about that here:
eea-route-applications/applying-for-an- ... 51568.html