Hi,
I just thought i would update this thread as it could save some very sleepless nights, trust me.....
There has been recent changes in case law from the ECJ, I am no lawyer but have almost exactly the same circumstances as the writer of this thread years ago and i found it via google after we had already applied for out family eea permit.
I live in spain and am a british national and work in gibraltar and have done so for <>9 years, I got married 6 months ago to a moldovian national, got residence for her in spain, if working in gibraltar you need to have residence certificate for yourself in spain and your wife, to get this you need to go to the police station and fill out forms (as usual) and provide a contract of employment, marriage certificate, an S1 (certificate of sickness insurance you get this from an office near water gardens in GIB), a Padron from the town hall, you can then register for healthcare in spain too. This will give permission to reside in spain for 5 years for your spouse and yourself. it takes a while for the non eea but you can get yours one the same day. You need to do all this because you need to prove you are self sufficient, i.e have enough income of funds and have proof of comprehensive sickness insurance. This is easy but does take time, on application for the eea permit we hadnt recieved the spanish residence card as once youve been through all the red tape you have to wait a further 45 days for the card to collect from the police station.
we applied for an eea permit for the uk, i filled out the form online and had to travel to madrid
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
to do the biometrics etc) and provided the following:-
letter from employer in gibraltar
copy of my yellow etb certificate from my employer
the padron for both of us (not tranlsated)
the S1 certificates for both of us
marriage certificate with hague appostile on it
6 months payslips
6 months bank statements
we didnt have our residence card yet as mentioned, but we did have a letter from spanish immigration giving permission to reside here, also we had a stamped certificate from the police showing we had been back to the police station and applied for the card, we didnt realise what this said as it was all in spanish but it basically says you are hereby authorized to live as a family member of an eea national etc, I had this officially translated and presented both documents.
A covering letter from me saying i had lived out here for a long time, that i returned to the uk often for up to a month at a time, but couldn't now because i was married and i couldn't leave my wife in Spain on her own, and that this would interfere with my freedom of movement and that i had taken all steps necessary to become a legal resident in spain for both of us, and explaining we were waiting for her card and should have it by the time we were travelling but should it not arrive in time you can get a certificate of re entry to spain in 3 days from the police station and we would get it but couldnt now because they require flight tickets to issue it.
In the letter i didnt quote laws and regulations as i am not a lawyer and i thought that if i were to start with all that, it might offend the ECO, i believe sometimes its better to let them deal with that and get a lawyer on it if needed later to quote the law.
we also paid for the priority visa and courier service, just so we got to the front of the queue even though eea permits are supposed to be priority anyway, dont know if that helped but it worked for us.
I spoke to four separate immigration advisors in the uk, the first one said it was fine for an eea permit, the second no, the third told me i had jepordised my future applications and should have applied for a visitor visa, and the 4th (who was a level 3 oisc) told me that there is new case law and it should be fine as i am "self sufficient" but if not she would provide a letter for the border agency in the ferry port explaining how i met the regulations for surinder singh / freedom of movement.
I had convinced myself we would not get the permit and had started plans to do the singh route via the ferry ports, it caused a lot of anxiety.
A case 456/12 came from the ECJ with the following
1. A residence period of three months is required (para 54)
2. Weekend visits and holidays do not count as residence for this purpose (para 59)
3. Any citizen of the Union can potentially benefit from this right, not just workers and the self employed (references to Article 7 of Citizens Directive 2004/38 , e.g. para 56, and to Article 21 of the TFEU, e.g. para 54)
4. During the period of residence family life must have been “created or strengthened” (para 51)
5. Abuse is impermissible (para 58)
none of the home office guidlines have been changed yet, but i am advised this is binding and is law so in appeal i would win it, however we didnt need to
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
.
it took <> 9 days to get the permit and am pleased to say that the passport arrived with the permit in it yesterday.
Im putting up this post because i just want others who might come across it and are in the same situation (there are thousands working in gib and living in spain) and i dont want them to have the same worry as i did
Good Luck!