Interesting press release here:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressRelease ... anguage=en
Directive 2004/38/EC makes travelling easier for family members who previously had to have an entry visa
No more visas for visits to the United Kingdom or any other Member State that does not yet participate in Schengen when the family members who do not hold nationality of a Member State have a residence card.
Angelo (24), an Italian studying biophysics in the Czech Republic, and his Russian wife Svetlana (23) are planning to visit their friends in Glasgow for two weeks in summer. When they called the UK embassy in Prague to arrange for a visa, they were surprised to learn that the new EU directive on free movement exempted Svetlana from the visa requirement as she holds a Czech residence card.
Great in theory, but I'll believe it when I see it! The EU directive itself is ambiguous and the UK's implementation of it clearly does not recognise the right of visa-free travel for non-EU family members.
What the EU directive (2004/38/EC) actually says is:
With a view to facilitating the free movement of family members
who are not nationals of a Member State, those who have already
obtained a residence card should be exempted from the
requirement to obtain an entry visa within the meaning of
Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 listing
the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas
when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are
exempt from that requirement (5) or, where appropriate, of the
applicable national legislation.
...
Family members who are not nationals of a Member State shall
only be required to have an entry visa in accordance with Regulation
(EC) No 539/2001 or, where appropriate, with national law. For the
purposes of this Directive, possession of the valid residence card
referred to in Article 10 shall exempt such family members from the
visa requirement.
But does this mean a valid residence card from one country exempts such family members from the visa requirement for all EEA countries or just the country that issued it? It's not clear.
The UK's interpretation is clearer. According to the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006,
"residence card" means a card issued to a person who is not an EEA national, in accordance with regulation 17, as proof of the holder's right of residence in the United Kingdom as at the date of issue;
So the UK's definition of "residence card" doesn't include those issued by other EEA states.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Angelo and Svetlana attempt to travel from Prague to Glasgow and have to explain all this to airline check-in staff and immigration officers.[/quote]
