Irish Guinness

our son and daughter both born in OZ, hold british passports as my husband and I are British.
Now that they have both married Australians,can there spouces now live in the u.k permently.or do they have to apply for special permission to stay in the U.K.?
Also would they be able to live in France.?
The reason I am asking is, we are all thinking of returning to live either in England or France,but need to know that there Aussie spouces can stay permently in either of these countries.
Hope someone can help thanks

JAJ

The Australian spouses would need to get spouse visas before leaving Australia: http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk

After 3 years they could become naturalised British citizens.

Yes they could be sponsored for a French visa or permit, BUT:

1. That wouldn't give them any right to French citizenship; and

2. Remember that your son and daughter are British citizens "by descent" so any children they have born in France won't automatically be British citizens.

It would be much smarter for your children at least to move to the UK, and bring their spouses there. Then, once their spouses are naturalised British:

1. The spouse can then freely move to France on a British passport; and
2. Any children born in France will automatically be British citizens based on their (naturalised) British mother.

Irish Guinness

thanks JAJ, This has been a great help cheers

blowfly

I believe via an Australian freind that as lived in the UK for the last 40 years that the only country that an Australian can go to without a visa and stay is Greece,all others as Jal said you need a visa.

Irish Guinness

Thanks for that Blowfly,gosh there is so much one needs to know,don't know where to start,I can't beleive my hubby is serious about this move,and having been in OZ for 50+ years it's really scary

blowfly

wow that is scary.Good luck with everthing,There's plenty of Aussies live over there long term.

JAJ

I don't believe that's true. Australians can visit most European countries without a visa. And there is absolutely no evidence that Australians have the right to *live* in Greece (although many Australians also hold Greek citizenship, so it's different for them).

blowfly

Well he never as hada visa for Greece. He wouldn't go to Spain like many others from the Uk because he needed a visa.He had tried and found the same for other Eu countries. Maybe some one as been making a hell of a mistake for all those years! He loves greece.

TraceyW

Wow, 50+ years!! You may notice a few changes in old blighty! You are very brave people.

All the very best to you all

JAJ

Have you got your Australian citizenship? If not, you shouldn't even think about leaving before you sort this out.

JAJ

When did all this happen? There was a time when Australians did need a visa to visit many countries, but this generally changed in the late 1990s when the ETA system was brought in. Many countries recognise this as the equivalent of visa free travel, and dropped visa requirements for Australians.

Use this to check visa requirements for a particular country:
http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying...vel/visaHealth