Originally Posted by Andrew79

Well, I also did some of my own research into this. And I found the following information:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en..._national.html
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en...g_ireland.html

I hope this helps

Originally Posted by englishguygoinghome

Hi Andrew, yep - those are th pages I'd found. But I can't see anything on there about how to apply for an initial entry visa as the spouse of an EEA citizen. According to EU law these need to be done with minimal paperwork, quickly and for free. I guess we need someone who's already done that or has looked at the various application forms to let us know. I'm guessing there will be more and more people looking at doing this in the near future

Originally Posted by englishguygoinghome

... Also as a warning: I saw a story on another forum by someone who claimed the Irish had denied his wife entry clearance as they believed he was only moving to Dublin in order to enter the UK. ...

Originally Posted by englishguygoinghome

Also as a warning: I saw a story on another forum by someone who claimed the Irish had denied his wife entry clearance as they believed he was only moving to Dublin in order to enter the UK.

Originally Posted by holly_1948

As a practical matter this could only be a problem if they travelled together.

A first-world foreign female tourist travelling alone is not going to be challenged unless being obnoxious.

Originally Posted by WEBlue

Holly, I'm not sure I understand your response.... Are you saying that the non-EEA spouse should not enter Ireland WITH the UK/EU citizen, but separately? And as to your second point, what if the non-EEA spouse is NOT a first-world citizen? This is the case for some couples here who may want to consider the Singh route.

Originally Posted by holly_1948

I'm saying that an American woman who enters Ireland alone is not going to have an immigration official suggest that she is doing that as a ruse to enter UK by improper means. Apparently there is a report of some Englishman coming to Ireland with his American wife and, upon probing questioning by Irish immigration officials admitted that he was taking up employment in Ireland with intention that it not be permanent but later moving to UK.

Originally Posted by Blackpudlian

After reading some of these posts I am really worried now, I am a British cititizen, I have been out of the UK for 10 years working away, my wife and I have a son who is 3-1/2 years old, he was born in the Philippines but has both Philippino and British passports, and consular birth registration cert, My wife is Philippino, we have lived together for about 5-1/2 years, in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, where I have been working, though I dont know how to provide proof of this. we got married in Aug 2011 in the Philippines and bought a house there in the same month.
I did intend for my son to go to school abroad, but have decided that I would like for him to have a British education at home in the UK, so plan on selling up and moving back there, we have registered him with the local council and named the school we want him to go to, I am worried now after reading that an entry requirement for a spouses visa is we have to have been married for 4 years. before my wife can live in the UK with us

We were originally given the wrong information by the VFS visa service in manila, who advised us that we could apply for ILR from the UK if we had a 2 year visitors visa, which we got in september, my wife and son are in the UK at the moment, where my son attends free nursery school 3 days per week. and will be coming here to malaysia next week for a holiday, before returning to the philippines to start the application process

I dont have a degree or anything like that but am working in Malaysia for an oil company and will have a 4 weeks away 4 weeks home rotation.

What I would like claryfying are
1. Could we get a spouse visa, even though we have not been married 4 years.
2. Will the fact that I work abroad affect our application.
3. We have only got about GBP30K in the bank, is that enough ( I do earn 3000 per Month average over the year, and I have got a small house in the UK, a two bed terrace, with only 50p outstanding on the mortgage ( just so the bank will store the deeds at minimal charge) and our house in the Philippines is up for sale, its worth about GBP200K again no mortgage.

I can support my family, but cannot really prove it, I am worried that our application will be turned down because I work abroad, have a house abroad
and have been away for so long, I cant sleep at night worrying about my son, and his education, If my wife is refused we couldnt possibly return.

Help, I need your thoughts please

Originally Posted by Blackpudlian

1. Could we get a spouse visa, even though we have not been married 4 years.

Originally Posted by WEBlue

Yes, absolutely. As Sarus has said, 4 years used to be a magic number for an easier path to permanent residency for the foreign spouse, but now any couple married any length of time (newlyweds too) applies for the very same spouse/partner settlement visa.

Not really, lots here are in the same boat. The hard part is if you need to find a proper job (paying £18600 or more per annum) in the UK to start within 3 months of your arrival in the country, along with a job history of earning same amount for either 6 months (same job) or 12 months (more than one job) in the foreign country. This is what's required to meet just the income requirements if you have no savings.

If you have savings you can use a specified amount over £16K to offset your salary gap, but the savings must have been in an account for 6 or more months.

Have you earned that salary for the last 6 - 12 months? If it comes to £18600 per year and you can prove it with payslips, tax records, etc. AND you can find a similarly-paying job in the UK, you could meet the salary requirements,

BLACKPUDLIAN- WEB Blue, thank you for your comments, my apologies about messing up teh Quote system on here, im not with it today, with all this going on in my head and affecting my sleep
anyway I have only worked for 4 months this year in the UK , I earned 14400, and collected rent from my little house of 3900, that will make a total of 18200, by the end of the year, not enough !!!

You DO need to be able to prove your salary is above a certain level when the foreign earnings are translated into GBP. If you can't prove your foreign salary, that could be a problem.... Unless you can prove cash savings (for the last 6 or 12 months) of £62K to meet the requirement.

BLACKPUDLIAN-I can prove part of my foreign salary, the part that is declared by my agent to the malaysia authorities for being taxed at source, it is RM1000 per day, roughly GBP200, I work 7 days a week now, but when I go offshore I will be working 28/28 so I only actually work 6 months hence my salary actually halves, I expect my salary for the rest of this tax year to be ( Feb, March 12k, )( April May June 6K) Then an average of 3 k a month after that for the rest of the year( 1 month 6k/next month nothing and so on)

Is it that you're self-employed abroad? That does seem to be more complicated, but still is doable if you can prove with documents either sufficient past earnings+

BLACKPUDLIAN I was LTD Co in the UK for 4 months but not now

As I said, lots of people here are in the same situation, have lived & worked abroad for years, have a non-EU spouse who needs a settlement visa before moving back to the UK. Maybe start reading some of the threads in this section, "Citizenship & Spouse/Family Visas". Also read the BE Wiki (up at the top) which has good clear info on the new rules for the UK Spouse Visa. It's a lot to understand, and not easy reading, but take it slow, one step at a time....