Applying for EEA FP or entering the UK via France?

[pauline_al]

Hello everyone,
Amidst of all the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, my EEA national husband (Spanish) and I (Russian) want to come to and settle down in the UK. Hmm.. Yay?!
Our brief background:
I have been legally living and working in Spain since 2009. We have met in 2013 and have been living together ever since. We registered our marriage in 2014.
Our major doubt is that the Home Office might be freezing all the applications being presented prior to Brexit or (even worse!) putting some awkward excuse of not being convinced of the authenticity of our marriage etc. and rejecting my application.
We don’t know whether take our chances and apply for an EEA family permit or try to enter the UK via France (Eurostar). Please, share your experience and help us decide:
1. Has any of you had an experience of successful entering the UK via France? What was your point of entry? Did an IO put an entry stamp into your non-EEA family member’s passport or was it an EEA family permit. Was it stating something like this «Employment and recourse to public funds prohibited»?
2. Did you have any problems of getting a NIN with your EEA family permit?
3. Is it possible for a non-EEA family member of EEA national to get a NIN with an entry stamp in his/her passport?
4. Is it possible to apply for a Residence card if you have a passport entry stamp that states that Employment is prohibited?

Thanks

[mamalicious187]

If you are genuinely married and been so all these years I do not see any reason why you can not apply for a residence card for a family member of an EU Citizen especially since you both have been living together in Spain.

It is pretty straight forward, put in an application for a residence card or apply for the family permit, it would be stated on it that you are permitted to enter The UK with your EU Citizen spouse only and you can work with that permit it is valid for 6 months and while you are here you can apply for a residence card.

This is simple except there are some circumstances you have not stated that could impede your application to settle in The UK

[kamoe]

Short answer: Get a Family Permit.
Long answer:

I have been legally living and working in Spain since 2009. We have met in 2013 and have been living together ever since. We registered our marriage in 2014.

Nothing to worry about here.

Our major doubt is that the Home Office might be freezing all the applications being presented prior to Brexit

Where do you get this information from? Although the number of applications has apparently risen since the vote, the process has not been frozen, and improvements have been made, making the whole thing even faster than before the vote on Brexit.

or (even worse!) putting some awkward excuse of not being convinced of the authenticity of our marriage etc. and rejecting my application.

Again, nothing to worry about if you have reasonable documentaion.

We don’t know whether take our chances and apply for an EEA family permit or try to enter the UK via France (Eurostar).

The right way to do this is to apply for a Family Permit in Spain. It's free.

If for some reason you can't do this, you can legally enter the UK by plane from any country provided you travel together and show your passports + marriage certificate at the border. Now, not all airlines and definitely not all airline staff are aware of regulations, so I would advise you to get a Family Permit instead to cover all bases. I would say same goes for Eurostar travel, but can't say 100% as have never done it.

[pauline_al]

First of all, thanks for answering, mamalicious187

If you are genuinely married and been so all these years I do not see any reason why you can not apply for a residence card for a family member of an EU Citizen especially since you both have been living together in Spain.

If you mean a residence card of a family member of a Union citizen issued by the Spanish government, I do have it. But as it states here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... dence-card, the type of card I've got, doesn't grant me an entrance to the UK:

An Article 10 residence card is a document which is issued under EU law (‘the Free Movement Directive’) by EEA Member States to non-EEA family members of EEA nationals who are exercising free movement rights in another Member State than that of their nationality.

For example, the non-EEA spouse of a French national who is living and working in Italy may be issued with an Article 10 residence card by the Italian authorities.

My particular case, I suppose, falls under the following category:

Documents issued on any other basis, for example (biometric) residence permits issued under the national law of another Member State, are not acceptable and do not exempt the holder from the requirement to obtain an EEA family permit.

For example, a non-EEA spouse of a German national living in Germany will usually hold a residence permit issued under German domestic law. Therefore, a United Kingdom EEA family permit is required for travel and entry to the UK.

So, yes, I guess an application for EEA FP seems to be pretty straightforward, but … I have been a passive participant on this forum for quite some time now and followed a number of the cases where couples have been waiting for 4-6 months only to see their application to be rejected on some ‘silly’ grounds. That’s when entering the UK via France could come into play due to its immediateness, thus my initial post weighing the pros and the cons of two available options.

My absolute priority is to be eligible to work in the UK, that is why I want to hear the stories of nonEEA – EEA couples, who (rightfully) entered the UK without the EEA FP, and find out what type of passport entry stamps they have got (and what they stated about right to work).

[pauline_al]

Our major doubt is that the Home Office might be freezing all the applications being presented prior to Brexit

Where do you get this information from? Although the number of applications has apparently risen since the vote, the process has not been frozen, and improvements have been made, making the whole thing even faster than before the vote on Brexit.

First of all, thank you very much for your insights, kamoe!!!
Totally my mistake: "Freezing" is definitely not the word I was supposed to use.. "slowing down" or "dragging out" would be more suitable.

I get this (hopefully paranoid:)) idea while reading another forum dedicated to the emigration in general and to the moving to the UK in particular. I realize that everybody's case is different and nuances of each couple do matter. The majority of the posters of the other forum live apart from their EEA spouses, which is clearly not my case.
I just need a different perspective, that's exactly why I decided to post here.

[obormot]

The impression I got from a history of several cases of friends in several years, is that Eurostar border control can be more painful then ones in the UK airports. Especially if you have a shaky case (like entering with EU spouse without family permit). So I do not recommend using Eurostar in such case.
Technically, you can enter showing marriage certificate and get “EU-family member” treatment on the board even without Family Permit, but in case like yours (several years of marriage living together in EU country) FP hold be quick and easy.
Most of problematic FP cases come from fresh marriages, when EU citizen wants to bring a spouse from “third world” country, and often that EU citizen already lives in UK and never lived with the spouse in the country they apply before..

[kamoe]

The impression I got from a history of several cases of friends in several years, is that Eurostar border control can be more painful then ones in the UK airports.

My feelings exactly.

Technically, you can enter showing marriage certificate and get “EU-family member” treatment on the board even without Family Permit, but in case like yours (several years of marriage living together in EU country) FP hold be quick and easy.

This is why the OP should exhaust all methods and apply as per normal procedure before cutting corners.

[kamoe]

I get this (hopefully paranoid:)) idea while reading another forum dedicated to the emigration in general and to the moving to the UK in particular. I realize that everybody's case is different and nuances of each couple do matter. The majority of the posters of the other forum live apart from their EEA spouses, which is clearly not my case.
I just need a different perspective, that's exactly why I decided to post here.

Your case sounds straightforward, so really, my advice is go ahead and apply with the standard FP procedure. If and only if you have a problem, then look for alternatives.

[pauline_al]

Technically, you can enter showing marriage certificate and get “EU-family member” treatment on the board even without Family Permit, but in case like yours (several years of marriage living together in EU country) FP hold be quick and easy.

Your case sounds straightforward, so really, my advice is go ahead and apply with the standard FP procedure. If and only if you have a problem, then look for alternatives.

Obormot, kamoe... thanks for your input!