Travel with EEA-Spouse without Visa to UK

[oranje]

Hey guys,

I hope I'm in the right place here and I hope my question hasn't been answered yet (haven't found anything suitable in the search-function).

My problem: I (Austrian) would like to travel to Scotland with my wife (non-EU citizen, but has Austrian residence permits for family members). We applied for our EEA Family Permit in time, but now we got a refusal because there is something missing in the documents. A new application would not run out of time (not even Priority).

I have now read that family members of EU members should be able to travel through Europe without a visa (Directive 2004/38/EC). But I have also often read that airlines can cause problems and would refuse boarding because of my wife's missing visa.

However, if you make it to the UK, there should be less of a problem (if you have patience and the printed text of the law with you).

Now to my real question: my flight ticket to Edinburgh has already been booked. If I now book another ticket to a Schengen country (e.g. the Netherlands) within 24 hours of arriving in Edinburgh, can the airline at Vienna Airport in Austria prevent me from taking the flight to Scotland (I then have a connecting flight to the Netherlands, for which a visa is no longer required)? If so, would this be a legal way to travel to the UK and try my luck there?

I thank you already for your answers

Best regards,
Mark

[Richard W]

There may be insuperable problems. If your wife would have to pass through British immigration to go to the Netherlands and is a 'visa national', she would need a transit visa according to the page at https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa . (That page is unaware of the privileges of family members of EEA nationals, so is not completely trustworthy.) I have seen a report from 2015 that Edinburgh airport has no facilities for airside transit - the report may be wrong or out of date. (If your wife were not a visa national, e.g. a US citizen, she would not need a visa to travel to the UK.)

[oranje]

Oh, that are bad news.

If i look at https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa, they write:
have a common format residence permit issued by an European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland

my wife has a "Aufenthaltstitel for family members" in Austria so i think she doesn't need a transit visa. But there is another problem as you wrote, that there is no transit zone at Edinburgh airport. So it could be difficult do argue at Vienna, that we just transit UK.

The chances are not good but i think we don't have any other way. At worst case the airline refuse us on boarding (i don't think that the UK border won't let us in) and we go back to our home and spent our holiday in Austria

[oranje]

I was thinking about another solution:

Book a ticket to London and from ther a onwoard-Ticket to a place in Schengen.

So, there we don't have the problem like in EDI with the missing transit area.

[himan1989]

Hey guys,

I hope I'm in the right place here and I hope my question hasn't been answered yet (haven't found anything suitable in the search-function).

My problem: I (Austrian) would like to travel to Scotland with my wife (non-EU citizen, but has Austrian residence permits for family members). We applied for our EEA Family Permit in time, but now we got a refusal because there is something missing in the documents. A new application would not run out of time (not even Priority).

I have now read that family members of EU members should be able to travel through Europe without a visa (Directive 2004/38/EC). But I have also often read that airlines can cause problems and would refuse boarding because of my wife's missing visa.

However, if you make it to the UK, there should be less of a problem (if you have patience and the printed text of the law with you).

Now to my real question: my flight ticket to Edinburgh has already been booked. If I now book another ticket to a Schengen country (e.g. the Netherlands) within 24 hours of arriving in Edinburgh, can the airline at Vienna Airport in Austria prevent me from taking the flight to Scotland (I then have a connecting flight to the Netherlands, for which a visa is no longer required)? If so, would this be a legal way to travel to the UK and try my luck there?

I thank you already for your answers

Best regards,
Mark

Hi Oranje
Can you please tell that how did you manage then?
What happened at UK airport or any problem with airline?
Will wait for your response
thanks