UK-FR dual national living in the EU with non-EEA partner, wishing to emigrate to the UK

[cry87]

Hello! I will make this as quick and efficient as I can.

I'm a UK - French dual national (since birth). I lived continuously in the UK until October 2018, when I emigrated to France with my non-EEA (Canadian) partner. We have moved our lives here, share bills, a home, etc.

In November 2019, we got a civil partnership (opposite-sex).

She has worked continuously since 10/2018, I worked from 03/19 to 03/20, but not since then. She is a teacher and I am an aircraft technician.

We have the option of converting her current Working-Holiday to a PACS-visa (which is like a one-year-renewable marriage visa) after her current visa expires on 10 Dec 2020, however we'd prefer to move to the UK.

So my question is, what is our best plan of action, given our circumstances and the timeline. Can we apply for an EEA residence permit, or EEA family permit? Forgive me i'm a little green when it comes to this stuff.

I also understand having both UK and FR nationality might cause a problem, so does the UK nationality preclude me from going down this route? And if so, would it benefit me at all to not mention the UK nationality in my application to the home office?

[kamoe]

does the UK nationality preclude me from going down this route?

It very likely does, I'm afraid. There are two routes for dual nationals, and it seems you are not eligible to either:

1) Lounes route: for EU nationals who immigrated to the UK, exercised their treaty rights here, subsequently became UK nationals after exercising treaty rights in the UK, and want to sponsor a non-EU family member.

2) SS: for UK nationals who immigrated to another EU state different from that of their own nationality, exercised their treaty rights there, and want to come back with their non-EU family member with whom they have been living in that EU state.

But because you are a dual UK-French national by birth, if you only ever lived in the UK and France, then you have never lived and exercised your EU treaty rights in another EU country that is different from your country of nationality, and this makes you ineligible for either of the options above. If you had lived with your partner in another EU country different than France or the UK, say, Germany, then you could use SS to come to the UK, since you are not a German citizen.

And if so, would it benefit me at all to not mention the UK nationality in my application to the home office?

[face palm] You cannot simply "not mention" that you have UK nationality. First, because you would need to lie on your application, since the question is specifically asked wether you have any other nationality; and second... because they will find out!

I'm afraid it looks like the route for you is the classic route of parter of a British citizen.

[cry87]

Thanks for the advice, it is much appreciated. I feel as though I should go down the normal Spousal visa route. I expect there should be no problem with applying from outside the UK.

If I may ask, though, how exactly would the UK home office know if I have dual nationality? Do EU/non EU countries share this information? I only ask because I am aware that some countries do not allow dual citizenship, or they only allow it with other EU countries (Germany and Austria), and I have heard of some people retaining dual nationality and having two passports by just not informing their host country of it. I know of one Japanese national who is about to acquire French nationality and intends to retain both, as Japan doesn't technically allow dual nationality for adults. I'm also aware of some immigrant communities in Austria that have both Austrian and Turkish, for example, nationality.

https://www.thelocal.at/20181119/austri ... ality-trap

They were discovered due to an unauthorised leak of a Turkish voter database, but had this not happened, Austria would be in the dark (unless Turkey decided to share it voluntarily )

I believe the only way UKHO would know was if I declared it previously .. for example when renewing a UK passport, they might ask me to send in all previous copies. As I have not done this, I am not certain how they would know (at least in the short term, i'm sure they would discover in the longer term). The only way I believe they may know is, as I have used my French passport when entering and exiting the UK recently, they do a name search on me or I get flagged, or they have a facial recognition database? I'm not planning on doing anything fraudulent or illegal, i'm only curious to know the, so this is all just theoretical.

[secret.simon]

Essentially if you do not declare your British citizenship at the time of any application, and you have been asked for a list of your nationalities, as @kamoe mentions, then you (or more accurately, the applicant, your non-EEA civil partner) will be committing deception.

If found out at any time in the future, that would put at risk not only any immigration benefit, but also, if your partner had acquired British citizenship by naturalisation, their British citizenship could be stripped from them as well, as their entire immigration history, which forms the basis of their naturalisation, would have been based on deception/falsehood.

You are likely to contact the Home Office at some point in time in the future, perhaps to renew your UK passport. Alternatively, your partner may list you as having British nationality when it comes to their naturalisation (spouses of British citizens can apply for British citizenship immediately after ILR, bypassing a one year wait), thus making the Home Office aware that you may have been less than frank with them in the past.

I suggest that the consequences, at least as regards living in the UK, are so dire for your partner that you would be ill-advised to even consider that option.

[cry87]

Hi! Damn, I made a mistake in second post.. I would obviously be declaring the UK nationality but not the French nationality, not the other way around. I'm sure the UK home office would know whether or not I am a British national, but would not necessarily know about any other nationalities I hold. The Surinder Singh method, I believe is available to UK nationals who temporarily emigrate to an EEA country of which they are not a national. Would the Home Office care if they discovered 5 years from now that I have a second non-UK nationality? I mean, I could have acquired it between now and then, by descent.

My partner does not intend to acquire British nationality. This is where we differ from most Surinder migrants. All she wants is the right to live and work in the UK. The spousal visa route is viable, however that's more for people who fully intend to settle permanently. We both wish to emigrate to Canada together within 2 years or so. That's why the Surinder Singh route is appealing, it's cheap, you get an answer in 6 weeks, we don't have to pay 1500 quid, etc. She has also used up other visa options (2 yr working-holiday visa, for example)

I also spoke to an immigration solicitor today who told me he believes my declaration of UK-FR nationality status should not stop me going through the SS migration method, and it will probably be approved. He wanted £900 + £65 to deal with the application, and he seemed knowledgable enough for the 5m of talk we had, is he mistaken? Thanks for you advice, it's very helpful to us.

[vinny]

Possible?

[cry87]

Very interesting! Do you know if crookall succeeded in his endeavour the EEA family permit route?

[cry87]

Possible?

I have spoken to a solicitor about this link, and I think now Irish+British citizens are the exception, any other EEA+British nationals could not depend on this. Thanks!