Schengen Visas Exemptions to Spouses

[Pasha]

Referring to the new regs of March 2009 where married spouses and children under the age of 21 or dependant of EU nationals are exempted from obtaining a Schengen visa to travel to the EEA if they hold:

- a valid passport;
- a valid UK residence permit issued by the Home Office with the endorsement "family member of EEA national" (art 10 of the European council/parliament directive 2004/38 ce);
- and if they are joining or travelling with the EU national

I satisfy the all of the above however, my reason for seeking clarifcation as to whether I should apply for a Schengen Visa (as a precautionary measure) is because my EEA Residence permit was issued by the Home Office endorsed on 'Immigration Status Document'. The stamp was not placed in my passport or as an ID card but on an A4 document.

Will this be acceptable by the authorities at the airport? Would they even know what it is?

Kind Regards,
Pasha

[86ti]

Where are you going? It is quite possible that that member state requires it to have it in the passport. I think I came across a few embassy web pages which said exactly that.

[Plum70]

The French being one of them.

[Guerro]

can i travel to my eea's european country? or only the schengen area except the eea's country?
tricky isn't?

[86ti]

can i travel to my eea's european country?

Same answer as before: it depends so please check with the relevant authorities.

[Pasha]

We would like to visit France, Portugal and Spain. I contacted the French embassy who just reiterated what is already on their website and would not comment on a specific query such as mine. The Spanish embassy ..still awaiting reply.

The Embassy of Norway has already issue me a single entry visa a while ago and they accepted the immigration status document (that was before the new rules of March 2009) whilst other embassies such as the French and Spanish Embassy said they simply cannot accept my application as my residence permit needs to be endorsed in my passport. Its crazy!

I want to be cautious as I dont want to be turned away because my residence permit document is not recognised.