EEA family member card and living at different places?

[nordsee]

Hi all, unfortunately it is not working well between me (EU citizen) and my wife (non eu). I'm thinking to move out and she would move closer to her workplace. We would remain married. She has a EEA family member residence card which was issued about 18 months ago.

Are we legally allowed to live apart from each other?

Links / sources would be great.

Thanks in advance

Nordsee

[secret.simon]

Provided the EEA citizen resides in the UK and is exercising treaty rights or holds PR and the non-EEA citizen remains married to the EEA citizen for at least three years, then the non-EEA citizen has a right to reside anywhere within the same EEA member-state as the EEA citizen (Diatta case law of the ECJ).

[nordsee]

Excellent. Thank you so much

[Obie]

Provided the EEA citizen resides in the UK and is exercising treaty rights or holds PR and the non-EEA citizen remains married to the EEA citizen for at least three years, then the non-EEA citizen has a right to reside anywhere within the same EEA member-state as the EEA citizen (Diatta case law of the ECJ).

That statement is very correct in many respect, but I think there is a slight muddle between the Diatta principles and the retained residence provision.

Diatta principle kind of applies, irrespective of whether a marriage had subsisted for 3 years or more. Furthermore 3 years alone is not sufficient for retained rights, divorce proceedings ought to have commenced as well.