Partner of European, also BNO holder

[alicecwm]

Hi everybody, I am just wondering what I should do if I want to work in UK with my partner who has French nationality. We have been living together and planned to get engaged in this year, we are thinking of trying our luck in UK for career opportunities. I am also a BNO holder. Do I need to apply for a work permit? If yes, should I apply as a BNO holder? Or should I apply as a partner of a French national? Thanks for your help in advance.

[dillonm]

Hi - I don't know what a BNO is, but you can definitely apply as the partner of a french citizen. You will need lots of proof that you are a partner though, going back at least two years. You can apply for an entry visa (valid for 6 months) in your home country, and then extend that once you are in the UK. Hope that helps!

[JAJ]

Hi everybody, I am just wondering what I should do if I want to work in UK with my partner who has French nationality. We have been living together and planned to get engaged in this year, we are thinking of trying our luck in UK for career opportunities. I am also a BNO holder. Do I need to apply for a work permit? If yes, should I apply as a BNO holder? Or should I apply as a partner of a French national? Thanks for your help in advance.

Before reading the rest of this post: are you also a Chinese citizen? If no, please clarify how you have no other nationality as you may be eligible for British citizenship immediately.

If you are also Chinese, then read on:

You will need to apply for an EEA Family Permit. http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk
After 5 years in the UK "excercising Treaty Rights" you and your partner will become Permanent Residents.

Being a BNO doesn't give you any special rights to live in the UK. However as a "Commonwealth citizen" you will have full voting rights, and one year after obtainin Permanent Residence you will be able to apply for Registration as a British citizen. This process is a little simpler and quicker than Naturalisation which your partner will have to apply for (as a French citizen).

Do you both plan to become British citizens in due course?

Bear in mind that after a few years of marriage you may be able to apply for French citizenship by marriage. This gives you some additional advantages but of course you would lose your access to British consular protection in France.

Do you plan to have any children born in the UK?

[alicecwm]

JAJ,
Thanks for your help. Yes, in fact, I am also a HKSAR citizen, so I know that I dont entitled to have British citizenship immediately.
I do understand your information on 'After 5 years in the UK "excercising Treaty Rights" you and your partner will become Permanent Residents.'
And also 'However as a "Commonwealth citizen" you will have full voting rights, and one year after obtainin Permanent Residence you will be able to apply for Registration as a British citizen. This process is a little simpler and quicker than Naturalisation which your partner will have to apply for (as a French citizen).'
However, my first concern is, how can I land on UK and have proper permit so that I can be able to look for a job and stay with my fiance. I guess by showing our PACS (Civil Partner documents in France), it can pretty much prove that we are really together under the same household.
To answer your question, we have actually no intention to be British citizen in long run, as I am already BNO holder and HKSAR citizen and my fiance is French national and Canadian national, I guess we have enough nationality to go around
As for children, I dont know, but I dont think so. I guess we will have children until we move back to Canada after enjoying nice landscape in UK for a few years.....
So what should I do to get my Work Permit? Being the fiancee of a French national? Or BNO holder alone is enough? Thanks.

[flyboy]

I suppose your french PACS would be proof of your relationship as it is recognised by the UK and treated equivalent as a british same sex civil partnership (i assume if they recognise it in same sex relationships that it must carry some weight for heterosexual couples too). It's mentioned on the link following:

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front ... 2706698515

[flyboy]

As post #2 pointed out, apply for an EEA family permit as the partner of a french citizen before arriving in the UK. With this permit you have the right to live and work in the UK, however, don't forget to apply for your EEA residence card before the 6 months of the EEA family permit expires.

[tensailee]

and of course, the Family Permit and EEA2 application are all free of charge.

[JAJ]

J
To answer your question, we have actually no intention to be British citizen in long run, as I am already BNO holder and HKSAR citizen and my fiance is French national and Canadian national, I guess we have enough nationality to go around
As for children, I dont know, but I dont think so. I guess we will have children until we move back to Canada after enjoying nice landscape in UK for a few years.....
So what should I do to get my Work Permit? Being the fiancee of a French national? Or BNO holder alone is enough? Thanks.

"BNO holder" is not enough to live in the United Kingdom. You need to understand that your Chinese (HKSAR) nationality and BNO nationality are pretty much the same thing and carry very similar rights.

Obviously, whether you become a full British citizen or not depends on how long you plan to stay in the UK. If only 2-3 years, then you won't have the option. But if you stay over 6 years then you will have the option to become a full British citizen and you should think very hard before passing up this opportunity.

Same goes for the opportunity to be a French citizen by marriage once eligible - the chance to obtain this may not always be there, so think hard before deciding not to go for it (if keeping your Chinese-HKSAR nationality is important, check their rules in advance). Your children will be French and Canadian at least and it's not a good idea for parents not to share the same nationality rights as their children.

[alicecwm]

"BNO holder" is not enough to live in the United Kingdom. You need to understand that your Chinese (HKSAR) nationality and BNO nationality are pretty much the same thing and carry very similar rights.

JAJ, thanks. I understand I cannot live in UK though, but what I wanted to ask is being BNO holder, will it be easier to get a Work Permit than being a civil partner of a French national? I know I have to go through all the procedure to get a Work Permit, but which choice will be easier for me? Apply as an BNO holder? or Civil Partner of my French national boyfriend?

Same goes for the opportunity to be a French citizen by marriage once eligible - the chance to obtain this may not always be there, so think hard before deciding not to go for it (if keeping your Chinese-HKSAR nationality is important, check their rules in advance). Your children will be French and Canadian at least and it's not a good idea for parents not to share the same nationality rights as their children.

Thanks for reminding me. Yep of course I will get my French nationality and Canadian nationality by marriage. That's why I dont think we really need a British nationality......I am not even sure we can have 3 nationalities

[flyboy]

Apply as partner of your french boyfriend - that is, apply for the EEA family permit - with this you can live and work in the UK.

[JAJ]

JAJ, thanks. I understand I cannot live in UK though, but what I wanted to ask is being BNO holder, will it be easier to get a Work Permit than being a civil partner of a French national?

Why do you keep asking about "work permits"? You don't need a work permit once you have an EEA Family Permit.

Thanks for reminding me. Yep of course I will get my French nationality and Canadian nationality by marriage. That's why I dont think we really need a British nationality......I am not even sure we can have 3 nationalities

You can if the governments concerned allow it. No problem having French, British and Canadian citizenship simultaneously.

Unlike with France, you can't get Canadian citizenship by marriage. You need to migrate to Canada and apply for naturalisation after 3 years residence.

[alicecwm]

Why do you keep asking about "work permits"? You don't need a work permit once you have an EEA Family Permit.

So you mean, the bottomline is, it is easier to get a Family Permit by being the Civil Partner of my bf than to try to get Work Permit by looking for an employer who wants to go through this for me as a BNO holder, right? That's your point, I guess?

Unlike with France, you can't get Canadian citizenship by marriage. You need to migrate to Canada and apply for naturalisation after 3 years residence.

Oh, that's good to know though. But it's ok, once we have kids, we should move to Canada anyways, so no problem for the 3 years residence thing.[/quote]

[flyboy]

That's exactly what he means! The EEA family permit is merely just a formality to confirm a right which you already have as a family member of an EU citizen. With this you can work for any employer, take up any job without the need for them having to apply for a work permit for you, whereas if you opt for finding a company to sponsor you for a work permit ,this will restrict you if you wish to change work , the company that wish to hire you will have to apply for a work permit on your behalf each time.
From your above replies it seems you want to go through the more complicated process of applying for a work permit with your BNO nationality. Spare yourself the trouble and forget about trying to find a company that will sponsor you for a work permit. EEA family permit is the way to go in your situation unless of course your personal circumstances have changed.

[BN(O)]

1) I don't think you will automatically lose your PRC citizenship upon acquistion of other citizenship. You need to "make a declaration of change of nationality" at the HKSAR Immigration Dept to discard your PRC citizenship.

See http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/chnnationality_3_1.htm

As you still hold PRC citizenship, you can still use HKSAR passport to travel overseas and use a "Home Return Permit" to enter mainland China.

2) Having a EU-citizen husband means you are eligible for the EEA family visa, but there is no guarantee that your visa application will be necessarily approved. Some cases these husband/wife visa applications can be rejected.

3) Traveling on a BC passport is more convenient than a BNO and HKSAR passport. BNO needs a visa to visit the US. BNO is not transmissable so if you don't get UK citizenship, you children will not able to use a British passport.

I enocurage you to read more articles on nationality on Wikipedia before make a decision. One example is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNO

[flyboy]

Highly unlikely that an EEA family permit will be refused, unless it is a marriage of convenience or if the EU citizen won't be exercising any treaty rights.

[alicecwm]

3) Traveling on a BC passport is more convenient than a BNO and HKSAR passport. BNO needs a visa to visit the US. BNO is not transmissable so if you don't get UK citizenship, you children will not able to use a British passport.

Hi BN(0), yep, I do understand BC passport is a lot more convenient than a BNO. Let's face it, BN(O) is just a 'nothing' passport. Strictly speaking, it doesnt even represent certain nationality. It is just 'sorta' saying that we are British without actually being able to be in UK. Just that in my case, my fiance is both French and Canadian. So I dont have to worry too much about getting around. With Canadian nationality, we will be quite ok to get around to many places, thats why I dont think I will really need BC nationality.

But you are totally right. We should fight for granting all BNO holder a proper BC nationality. The Brits dont actually even need to worry about that everybody from HK is going to rush there and stuff. Look at the case of Canada, most HK canadian move back to HK after getting the nationality. And most of the HK people who got BC passport before the handover have never really moved to UK neither. I am sure most of us just want to stay in HK but we do want to have a proper natiionality for travel convenience. Having a 'non-nationality' (let's face it, we dont belong to any country with our two 'not-quite-belong' passport is just too inconvenient in most cases. My fiance has personally fed up with my BNO passport AND ALSO my HKSAR passport that whenever we travel, we need to prepare print out from the websites from different embassies to show to the custom officers in case they dont know what is BNO NOR HKSAR! I am not even talking about going to some far-away, exotic countries here, I am talking about when we went home to Canada!!!

[BN(O)]

3) Traveling on a BC passport is more convenient than a BNO and HKSAR passport. BNO needs a visa to visit the US. BNO is not transmissable so if you don't get UK citizenship, you children will not able to use a British passport.

Hi BN(0), yep, I do understand BC passport is a lot more convenient than a BNO. Let's face it, BN(O) is just a 'nothing' passport. Strictly speaking, it doesnt even represent certain nationality. It is just 'sorta' saying that we are British without actually being able to be in UK. Just that in my case, my fiance is both French and Canadian. So I dont have to worry too much about getting around. With Canadian nationality, we will be quite ok to get around to many places, thats why I dont think I will really need BC nationality.

But you are totally right. We should fight for granting all BNO holder a proper BC nationality. The Brits dont actually even need to worry about that everybody from HK is going to rush there and stuff. Look at the case of Canada, most HK canadian move back to HK after getting the nationality. And most of the HK people who got BC passport before the handover have never really moved to UK neither. I am sure most of us just want to stay in HK but we do want to have a proper natiionality for travel convenience. Having a 'non-nationality' (let's face it, we dont belong to any country with our two 'not-quite-belong' passport is just too inconvenient in most cases. My fiance has personally fed up with my BNO passport AND ALSO my HKSAR passport that whenever we travel, we need to prepare print out from the websites from different embassies to show to the custom officers in case they dont know what is BNO NOR HKSAR! I am not even talking about going to some far-away, exotic countries here, I am talking about when we went home to Canada!!!

Read my open letter http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=13406