British Wife asian husband want to move to Eu

[google]

Hello there,
Me (british), husband (pakistani) married for five years and have a child of four year old, currently in pakisstan we applied a settlement visa for him in uk embassy but it got refused on his previous immigration history and maintainance issue. He lived illegaly in uk past 7 years and he is in pakistan.
We want to use eu route how can we go about this. Shall we apply a tourist visa for him to any eu country or shall we apply for eea1 . Honestly i dont have no idea and i am desperate . Please help me.
Thanks

[John]

Which EU/EEA country are you thinking of moving to? And in what way will you be intending to exercise your EU/EEA Treaty Rights in that country? For example, employed? Self-employed? Or how?

He should not just apply for a tourist visa. He needs to make application at the relevant country's embassy for ...... well the UK Government calls it an EEA Family Permit ..... but other countries call it something different ... but effectively it gives the same rights ... to allow the non-EEA person to to join their spouse in the EEA country.

[google]

hi john
thanks for your reply
Basically what it is we want to visit the country probably spain or france if we like it there we will settle there .
So can he accompany me to europe .Will the visa for eu be any hardship for him.
Please advice really desperate
thanks

[John]

google, OK so France or Spain. Can you now answer my other questions please.

[killinghall]

google,

Lets tackle this a different way.
You cant apply for UK settlement as your husband has overstayed in the past.
So, to make use of the EU route, you yourself as the EU citizen, have to show that you intend to live & work or study in another EU country and make it your home. This is called "exercising your treaty rights" in another country. When you decide how you do this, you need to apply a visa for your husband of that country. Once you have stayed there for a while (6 months at least) you can then apply for settlement in the UK with your husband.

Do you have some relatives etc in another EU country that could support you in settling in a new country? Do you speak any other European languages? Which country could you settle in the easiest? These are the questions you have to ask yourself before taking this step.

Once you have decided which country, you then need to go about finding out what the rules are for that country, as some countries do not allow residence unless you have lived elsewhere in the EU before.

You need to take time to think this through, there is lots of help available here (John is an expert in these matters) but you have to answer the questions thoroughly; This is probably a good point to make you aware that the EU route is not easy as you will have hurdles like language etc every step of the way, so are you sure there is no way you could appeal under UK immigration laws (human rights etc?) - please note I am no expert in UK immigration matters, but i'm merely presenting the idea.

[John]

So, to make use of the EU route, you yourself as the EU citizen, have to show that you intend to live & work or study in another EU country and make it your home. This is called "exercising your treaty rights" in another country. When you decide how you do this, you need to apply a visa for your husband of that country. Once you have stayed there for a while (6 months at least) you can then apply for settlement in the UK with your husband.

My understanding is .... not quite! That is, in order to make use of the Surinder Singh route, which is what is being mentioned above, the EU citizen needs to be economically active in the other EU country. Therefore, for example, being a student would be insufficient to trigger the ability to use the Surinder Singh route.

Which is why, google, we need to know in what why you propose to exercise your EU Treaty Rights in France or Spain. Is this all sounding much more complicated than you thought it would be?

[Wanderer]

But see below, dunno if the highlighted is ever actaully enforced but best to be aware of it;

In general, where a non EEA spouse of a UK national is seeking to enter the UK for the purposes of living with his or her spouse, the ordinary immigration rules (as detailed above) will apply, even though the UK is part of the EEA. However, a small number of people may take advantage of the case of Surinder Singh [1992 3 All ER 798] which applies the rules relating to spouses of EEA nationals to non-EEA spouses of UK nationals. This is particularly important when it comes to marriage breakdown (see below). The ECJ held that, where a British citizen has been exercising a right to free movement in another EU state, the spouse of that British citizen will retain their rights to benefit from EU law on moving to the UK. Regulation 11 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) (Amendment) Regulations 2000 ("the Regulations") now therefore states that the spouse of a British citizen will be treated in this way, namely in the same way as a family member of an EEA national, if:



After leaving the UK, the British citizen resided in an EEA country and was employed there or was established there as a self-employed person;


The British citizen did not leave the UK in order to enable his family member to acquire rights under the Regulations and therefore evade the ordinary immigration law;


On returning to the UK, the British citizen would, if he or she were an EEA national, be a "qualified person", namely exercising Treaty rights, under the EEA Regulations; and


The marriage took place and the parties lived together in an EEA country before the British citizen returned to the UK.

[John]

Nicely spotted Wanderer. I also don't know if that is enforced, and suspect that it is wishful thinking on the part of UKBA, but in case it is enforced, clearly the EU citizen needs to be in the other EU country, and economically active there, before their non-EEA spouse applies for their EEA Family Permit (or whatever it is called in the other EU country).

So google, how is your French or Spanish? And are you going to become employed or self-employed?

[charliebrown]

Hi John, sorry to jump into someone elses post but this situation is similar to that of my own. My husband has been refused UK visa so i can thinking about going to Barcelona or Greece and taking a ESOL teaching course and living/working there instead. I would like my husband to join me as soon as possible, how would i go about this? I have tried contacting both spanish and greek embassies in the UK but just automated messages. The ESOL course would be for 4 weeks could i call for my husband within this time or do i need to secure employment first?, i could get a part time job whilst doing the course but would that suffice? we have enough money already to ahow we can live would that help? sorry so many questions but my course is due to start in July so want to know we are doing the right thing? we don't even want to come back to the UK but would like to know the option is there for us? although after EU we wnat to immigrate to New Zealand. Thank you in advance...