I hope this will encourage people worried about travelling (particularly to France) with their French eea spouse do so without a visa. As I have done on 2 occasions to date.
Just returned from holiday in France with my French spouse and glad it all went well in regards to Immigration Officer letting me through with no hassle. However I was disappointed by the lack of knowledge of the IO that stamped my passport in London and frustrated for not being able to challenge them in a verbal conversation because I do not speak French and my spouse was too fearful of them changing their mind and preventing me from travelling especially as the info(s) on embassy's and tls website are incorrect.
Travelled by train from St pancreas, going through French IO and before I could blink he has stamped my passport which I immediately told him he is not supposed to do. He had conversation with my spouse in French that he has to stamp it and all that..... So I walked on
On return I to England, on handling my passport I asked my spouse to inform the French Officer that he is not allowed to stamp my passport. He was quiet a pleasant officer and asked why I do not want a stamp and we told because the directive says so. He responded saying he is not going to stamp it but the directives say they have the choice whether or not they stamp it and it is up to them if they choose to. But before he handed the passport back he joked to stamp several pages
quiet a fun guy for a French IO. To conclude, we could be there all day long arguing over who's interpretation of the directives is accurate but the damage as been done anyway. My point is this guys or their managers clearly have not been properly trained and it will take a serious case/fight to change this which is unlikely. So like I had stated before somewhere on this forum perhaps the best way to prevent having passport stamped when it shouldn't be (or indirectly training these IOs) is to inform the IO on handling passport that according to the directive blah!!! you may not stamp my passport or type on a paper in relevant language and handover.
One think that baffles is that there seems to be so much confusing regulations and threat of large fines for the airliners that carries passengers without appropriate documents but that is not the case for Train operators like Eurostar. What is the difference between international flight between London and Paris and international Train journey between London and Paris?