britoutofwater

I'm a dual British-Portuguese citizen, currently living in the US. I just had a UK job offer so trying to work out the logistics of getting my wife and her child (our child really, but eyes of the law..) over to join me.

It looks like the UK spouse and step-child visa route would be the easiest, we'd meet the criteria and all that but with the cost of getting the pets, our stuff, and of course them over the cost of the visas looks a little steep.

One route we thought of was getting them both Portuguese citizenship through marriage. This doesn't look too tough, but is another hurdle and potential delay to get through. I was wondering though (as from what I can tell it's so much cheaper) is whether they could be sponsored on the EEA Family visa for non-EU family, or will my applications always default to the UK as my citizenship for UK immigration purposes?

HKG3

You can use your Portuguese citizenship to get an EEA family permit for your wife as long as you give up your British Citizenship first.

https://www.gov.uk/renounce-british-...ality/overview

In the case of your wife getting Portuguese Citizenship via her marriage to you, she would need to be marry to you for three years or more and need to know the Portuguese language in order to apply.

http://eudo-citizenship.eu/NationalD...0(English).pdf

As you are not the biological father of the child, you may need to get a court order or written permission from the father in order to get a visa for the UK.

SanDiegogirl

You can't apply for the EEA Family permit for your family as you are a British citizen - and that supercedes your European status.

If you relinquish your British citizenship then you can apply for EEA FAmily permit.

britoutofwater

I don't think I'm willing to do that, what a ridiculous set of rules we have! I guess we'll see how getting Portguese citizenship works out or I'll just cope with the visa fee.

As for biological father, we used a donor but she was born in Okahoma so I couldn't be on the birth certificate. My partner is the only registered parent so I don't think we need to get permission from anyone.

britoutofwater

She's learning Portuguese (though my mum did get citizenship without much). I think we'd technically go for the "committed loving relationship route" as we have a civil partnership that's 4 years old, but not marriage.

Shirtback

re bolded: can't you register an "acknowledgement of paternity"?
http://www.okdhs.org/okdhs%20form%20...y/03PA209E.pdf

That doesn't sound too complicated to me?

britoutofwater

Except that those forms are very clearly for fathers, I'm female, and in Oklahoma (still actively fighting same sex marriage) that still matters.

HKG3

Well, why not? You can try and resume your British Citizenship after giving it up -

https://www.gov.uk/renounce-british-...sh-nationality

It will be the same if you got a job offer in Portugal. In order to apply for an EEA family permit for your OH, you will need to give up your Portuguese passport.

britoutofwater

Interesting, though I couldn't quite work out what the fees might be if I tried to resume it again and I suspect that renouncing my citizenship would put some of the jobs I'm applying for in peril. I think we just either have to get them both Portuguese passports or suck it up and pay the fees.

HKG3

From what I can see, renouncing your British Citizenship will limit you to certain jobs in the civil service, the armed forces and political office.

BritInParis

There's no guarantee that you would be able to resume your British citizenship if you renounce it to essentially circumnavigate the UK spouse/civil partner visa rules seeing it would be at the Home Secretary's discretion. It's not a risk I would take willingly if there is an alternative so I would exhaust the possibility of Portuguese citizenship through marriage first given that Portugal permits same sex marriage.

What passport(s) does your wife currently hold? Any European ancestry of her own she could use to obtain a EU/EEA passport?

Shirtback

I'm so sorry - I should have thought twice before assuming & posting .

britoutofwater

They have US passports, the wife has Irish and Dutch ancestry, though I'm not sure how far back. I also think I remember correctly that her Irish ancestor left Ireland in disgrace and fleeing the law so I'm not sure how that would work! We'll have a look though.

britoutofwater

It was a good thought, just doesn't work for us.

Unfortunately because of the legal limbos occurring when our daughter was born we couldn't just get married before the birth and register her as British. That really would have solved a whole lot of headaches with this stuff, but also created some new ones.

BritInParis

An Irish-born grandparent would meant a quick registration process with the Irish Embassy and she's an Irish citizen.

To clarify, were you born in the UK?