zefffff

Hi everyone.

I am in Europe with my family. I have an EU passport, our young son has his EU passport, but my wife does not have hers. She is a Canadian without a visa.

We are starting to run a bit low on funds, but we don't want to give up on our plans just yet, so we're exploring our best course of action. I am a musician, so there isn't much chance of me being able to sponsor my wife's visa/right of abode/residency, especially for the UK. We have attempted the Surinder Singh route a couple of times, but it seems to be too reliant on me. Being able to support my family while paying rent, taxes, bills etc on one unqualified worker's wages seems impossible. Again, I'm the strongest link (as her British citizen husband), yet weakest (unqualified). So on top of running low on funds, we are running low on ideas.

We want to be in a situation where my wife is able to work (she is a school teacher) in any EU country at this point. We are currently housesitting in France and her 90 days in the Schengen area is almost up.

Who's got ideas for us? Thanks!

quiltman

Oh dear! From what I know, if you are a British citizen, you will find it impossible to get her into UK to live on a spouse visa unless you have a job paying at least £18,600 for at least 6 months.I expect you already know this from your comments.
The Surinder singh route has proved OK for many and there are pages of info here on BE - just use the search function at the top of the page.
If I remember correctly, once you have qualified under the SS route, as a British Citizen you can claim the right to abode in UK for your wife under EU rules.
I'm sure someone like Brit in Paris will be along with a more definitive and correct interpretation! Good luck.
If your wifes schengen visa runs out, she can get a visitors visa to UK at the POE but she has to be out of the UK for you to apply for a spouse visa.hopefully you will get better advice soon.

zefffff

Thank you for your empathetic response! There are little glimmers of hope here and there. We are thinking that going to Ireland may be in our best interest. However there is a housing crisis there at the moment. We are open to anything at this point, even in the Czech Republic, as one commenter posted before me, the spouses of UK citizens are able to work there. If we find a scenario that allowed us both to work, our prospects will start to look more promising. Until then we're sort of resigned to the fact that we may have to go back to the Canadian winter.

BritInParis

The Surinder Singh route would still require you, as the EU citizen, to be exercising your treaty rights in whichever European country you pitch up in, e.g. work.

Does your wife have any recent European ancestry, parents, grandparents or great-grandparents?

Pollyana

You say you have an "EU passport" - are you a British citizen or a citizen of some other country?

zefffff

I am a British citizen, as is our son.

zefffff

My wife is French Canadian through and through. Her ancestors likely landed in Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1605.

We are well aware that I would have to be exercising my rights while attempting to make the Surinder Singh route work, yes. That route is something we may re-try in Ireland, however, with the lack of housing in urban areas there, the difficulty in acquiring an Irish driver's licence and insurance, (a Nova Scotia driver's licence is not interchangeable, and non-insurable), and our lack of funds and unemployment, finding an affordable place to live will be nearly impossible, making the effort rather futile.

You could say that the crux of the problem is the person qualified for a more stable job, my wife, is not able to work without a lot of bureaucracy that pertains to me exercising my rights somewhere, and doing that is the most difficult aspect! It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

dmu

Before booking tickets wherever (unless it's to return to Canada), you should find out from an official source whether your wife can move to another country if her Schengen visa is "almost up". If I were her, I wouldn't want to take the risk of arriving in any POE, only to find that I couldn't enter the country for lack of proper papers. You would then have a rapid decision to make, not forgetting your young son's immediate future.
Urgent enquiries should be made at the Canadian Consulate in France and the Authorities who issued the Visa.
Hope you and your family find a solution, if only return to Canada, and initiate proceedings from there.

zefffff

Thanks for your tip. We are thinking of going to Ireland partly because it is not in the Schengen area. However, we have also been contemplating Malta, which is in the Schengen area, so it would be wise of us to take your advice. Precisely why I seek out these forums. Thanks for your help.

SanDiegogirl

You say your wife is French Canadian. Therefore her French should be perfect.

If this is the case, and you are currently in France if YOU get yourself a job (it does not have to be a musician) then I believe, it could be said that you are exercising your treaty rights and your wife could then apply for a work permit to also work in France.

Teaching is a very country/language dependent profession and it might be that she would need to obtain further qualifications to teach in France. However, even if teaching was not something she could do immediately, with good French she should be able to get a decent job with some effort - and hence support your family.

dmu

The OP's wife's Visa is "almost up", and if they were considering staying in France, they should have looked into this possibility long ago. The OP doesn't say how well he speaks French, but even an unqualified person with good French would find it very difficult to compete with the millions of French candidates chasing any job going. The unemployment rate in France is VERY high. There's also the question of healthcare coverage if they stay in France without employment, not to mention problems renting without payslips.
@OP - despite the late hour and if you're tempted by this suggestion, come onto the France forum and read the "Read-Me" Moving to France FAQs, particularly the threads on healthcare coverage, renting, schooling,... If you haven't already done so, look in on the Malta and Ireland forums, too.

zefffff

You're on the ball! You're exactly right about France.

Once we realized how difficult it was finding a place to live in Ireland, and consequently, how much money we were spending on hotels, we sort of got frightened off. We resorted to our housesitting membership to look for a place to live cheaply, brainstorm, and possibly still exercise my treaty rights.

We found a place in southern France right away. My wife's first language was French, I consider myself bilingual, the weather looked great, it seemed like the best option, so we went for it. Turned out to be in a very rural area of Provence. It didn't take us long to realize things might not work out. We had access to a very old van, but it went from 0 to 60km/hr in 10 minutes. Seriously. Additionally, the owner didn't want us to go beyond 40km away anyway. The closest town is quite small and most of the little amount of work here is seasonal. We postered the area advertising English lessons, posted ads online for English and guitar lessons, dropped off resumes at supermarkets, talked to people, all for naught. We even tried, on a somewhat fraudulent premise, to volunteer at a local cafe in return for 12-15hours of pay that would come out of our own accounts and into a French account that I had opened. No dice. Times are tough here. The people here aren't used to hearing accents other than their own thick one, so the language, though minimally, was a barrier for me as well, admittedly.

In the meantime, I had been getting messages from friends back in Ireland asking if I would do gigs. Face-palm. We remained slightly hopeful though, as the owner of the house we were sitting agreed to act as our landlord/employer. We were to be his house carers, which isn't that far from the truth. We could transfer money to him from one account, he could transfer it back to another. So we had that, we had mail coming to us from the bank which could prove our address, we were integrating, saving receipts, we were going to get my wife's carte de sejour. It started looking okay.

We realized it really wasn't working upon applying for her card. Our documents weren't sufficient. I needed proof of private medical insurance, proof of address (more than just bank statements), a social security number, proof of employment, she needed her birth certificate translated, and the list went on and on and it was like a big catch 22. So much so that we realized we don't really have a chance in hell to make Surinder Singh work if we can't even obtain a card for France. Then we realized my wife's 90 days is up beginning of Feb.

And that's more or less why I sought out this forum. So far it has been very helpful, and aided us in realizing that we're really ready to give it all one last big hurrah.

dmu

Really sorry it hasn't worked out for you, but it's not the end of the world, returning to a Canadian winter. You can consider all your possibilities "tranquillement" when you're back there.
All the best!

zefffff

You're right again! Canada is pretty great and we can always return. Besides, the Canadian dollar is not doing well against the Euro at the moment anyway!

We have resigned ourselves to the fact that bad luck does happen, no matter how good of a grasp you think you have. To tell you the truth, it has got to the point of being downright spooky for us sometimes. We are even short most of our clothes, two smartphones, baby clothes, an instrument, among other items that were in a large insured suitcase that PostNL lost and for which they will not reimburse us a cent. Having to resort to higher authorities for that one.

Luckily we have our health. Cliche but true.

We are still considering Malta, but this time we are going to consider worst case scenarios too!

dmu

Sorry, I'm being Devil's Advocate here, but, according to:
https://www.service-public.fr/partic...sdroits/F16146
unless your wife's Schengen visa is "à entrées multiples", it's only valid 90 days WITHIN the Schengen Area, i.e. she would have to return 'home' from the Schengen Area, wherever, before the visa expires at the beginning of February.
Fore-warned is fore-armed!