Moving to France - will it help

[harrers]

This is my first post to this forum and although I have read quite a lot of posts on this subject I apologise if I am covering old ground!

First, some background info to our case. I am British and my wife came to UK from Kenya in 1996. She is now also British. Shortly after coming to UK 2 of her daughters living in Kenya died leaving a total of 5 children to be looked after. They went to live with another of my wife's daughters living in Kenya and we provided financial assistance and went to Kenya whenever possible. From 2003-2005, we adopted/obtained custody orders and were able (after some difficulties with entry clearance) to bring the 5 grandchildren to live with us here in the UK.

Since 2005 we have been trying to bring the daughter remaining in Kenya to the UK. She brought up these children for 7 years and it seemed only natural that they should be allowed to be together. Unfortunately, UK immigration rules only allow a daughter over 21 (she is 30) to obtain settlement if she is living in the "most compelling compassionate circumstances". If you are supporting someone abroad they are unlikely to be able to show that they are in those circumstances.

For some time, we as a family have been thinking about moving to France. We have put off a decision whilst our case was under appeal. As we are all Eu citizens, if we were living in France would we find it easier to bring our daughter (and her children - she has no partner) to France to live with us?

[gani999]

I doubt you will find it any easier to bring your daughter to France. The French aren't exactly more accomodating than the English in such things. If anything, you'll find it more difficult to bring your daughter to France.

Can your daughter find her own way to join you? She could enrol in a college in UK/France and apply for a student visa, or find a job and apply for a work visa. Have you considered these possibilities?

Good luck

[sakura]

harrers,

By moving to France, under the European Directive (like regulations) you would be excercising treaty rights (to move to another EU country as a citizen of a member state of the European Union). Thus, in an EU country other than your own, you are able to rely on the European Directive "directive 2004/38/EC", which regulates the movement of EU nationals and their non-EU national family members.

I'm not a great expert on this, but I think you can start learning about the process by doing two things;

1. Read the details on this: eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L2290048:EN:PDF

2. Do a search on this board for "directive 2004/38/EC" (note, there is a member on this board with the same name!)

This directive is what you would need to use in order to bring her to join you. The problems you face are showing dependency at her age, and the fact that she has dependents of her own. There have been cases of older unmarried children being given residence under the directive, but I don't know about anyone who has children qualifying for this.

I will leave other people to comment on your possibilities, but do read up on this directive.

[harrers]

gani999 thanks for your reply. Any type of visa to UK is very difficult if you have been refused settlement. If we go to France then we shall look at all possibilities.

Sakura - yes I was thinking of the European Directive 2004/38/EC. I was wondering if anyone had experience of how it works - particularly in our situation. The French seem to be quite keen on family reunification. I don't think proving dependency is a problem as even the UK authorities agreed that we were providing for everything for our daughter and her family.

[gnajaf1]

hi i would like to put my two cents worth in , and hope it helps you decide, i am british citizen with african wife, i can relocate my job to any eu country , so i decided france because french embassy was the closest to where my wife was in africa, so i sent all the documents and she apllied, she was treated appaulingly by the french embassy even though she is the wife of an eu citizen exercising treaty rights in france. when she sent to the french embassy for her INTERVIEW she was held outside the front door and not allowed in , about an hour passed and a security gaurd came out , threw her passport at her and said NON. no reason was given , no right of appeal was offered, solvit service replied to my complaint saying yes this is the french governments policy and nothing can be done , my advice is much the same as robert de niros,,, dont go to france and tell your friends not to go to france

hope it helps

[sakura]

Can you explain how old your grandchildren are? Will they also be moving with you to France? How many do you wish to reunite with (bring to France)?

Is your case still under the appeals process?

[harrers]

Can you explain how old your grandchildren are? Will they also be moving with you to France? How many do you wish to reunite with (bring to France)?

The grandchildren are 10, 13, 16, 17 and 19. They may not all move with us depending upon their education. The youngest were just babies when their aunt started bringing them up in Kenya.

Is your case still under the appeals process?

We have come to the end of the appeal process here in the UK as we were advised not to move on to the Appeal Court. To continue with UK immigration process, we will have to find new reasons and then reapply for settlement.