Can I apply to "reunite" before we've moved to Swi

[rrrjjjmmm]

Hi
I wrote on this forum a while ago. Fast forward 12 months, I'm in still Aussie, my now husband is still British and we are still waiting for his temp res for Aust to come thru. 7 months and counting.

The curve ball, my company want to move me to their HQ in Switzerland. They would sponsor but I dont want them to "own" my visa. And eventually we want to go back to UK, so this is a good chance for my career and all the moving costs being taken care of. Not to mention an EEA rather than spouse for UK after a year or two in Geneva.

My question is, can I, or rather how can I, move with my husband to Switzerland without him having a job. What is the definition of "exercising treaty rights"? Could we apply for me to get an EEA before we've left Aust or would he need to secure a job or study place or even just an apartment before we left?

Thanks in advance.

[geriatrix]

See Treaty rights.

EEA family permit is for travel to the UK by non-EEA family members of an EEA citizen exercising treaty rights in the UK. If your British citizen husband has always lived and worked in the UK, then you cannot apply for an EEA family permit to travel to the UK.

Assuming Switzerland follows the Rights of Movement Directive, then:

For you to take advantage of EEA regulations to travel to Switzerland as spouse of EU citizen exercising treaty rights, your husband will first need to move to Switzerland and exercise treaty rights there, before you can apply to join him under the EEA regulations (as spouse of EU citizen).

As for him, I believe he can relocate to Switzerland by virtue of being a British (EU) citizen. You can join him either on your own Swiss work permit or as a family member of an EEA citizen.

[86ti]

As Switzerland is neither part of the EEA nor the EU there cannot be EEA regulations in force in that country and the term "exercising (EU) treaty rights" does not really make sense here. However, there are separate bilateral agreements between the EU and Switzerland including the free movement of persons. In general (within the EEA), it is not necessary for the EEA national to first establish himself in the host country but I am not sure if this is also true for Switzerland. In any case, search this forum for contributions from user 'ca.funke' as he went through that already or maybe write him a PM.