Immigration history and Schengen visas

[rosebead]

I am British and I am planning to go the Surinder Singh route at some stage with my Albanian fiance whom I will be marrying soon in Albania where he is now. Unfortunately my fiance has a bad immigration history in the UK and also in Italy. My fiance was caught in Italy as an illegal immigrant and was banned from re-entry until 2012. He then came to the UK illegally a few years ago and was caught by the authoritites here but was then released pending a Home Office decision. He was supposed to sign at the Home Office every week but he absconded. He voluntarily went home to Albania recently where of course he is legally allowed to stay.

I plan to look for a job in the EU after we are married, but how problematic will it be to apply for a Schengen visa for my spouse (with his history) to join me in whichever EU country that I find a job in? Legally I know that Metock case law entitles me to have my spouse with me if I exercise my EU treaty rights in an EU country other than my own, but in practice I am aware that not all ECOs adhere to EU law or are even aware of the law sometimes. Has anyone else had experience with such a situation, was it tricky getting a Schengen visa? In honesty, my soon-to-be spouse could get to wherever I am in the EU with or without a Schengen visa, but I would rather do it legally but I am just concerned that some ECOs might cause problems for me in obtaining a visa for him. I would not want to spend months appealing the negative decision of an ECO, so how about if my fiance were able to get to my host EU country by 'other' means - would it be problematic applying for a residence permit for a spouse who is an illegal immigrant?

Albanians are normally allowed visa-free travel in the Schengen Area (since 2010) but I think my fiance's immigration history, especially in Italy, prevents this. His entry ban in Italy expired in 2012 but it is apparently still on the Schengen Information System (SIS), and because of this he was recently refused entry by a Bulgarian border guard to visit a friend in Bulgaria. My fiance's UK immigration history was not on the SIS. My fiance could apply for the Italian entry ban to be removed from the SIS database but it is a lengthy procedure. If I were able to successfully apply for a Schengen visa for my fiance, would that supersede his Italian entry ban on the SIS database?