pintolane

my aussie wife an I want to go and live and work in Europe for a year or so. I am a british citizen and she is an aussie who has previously lived in the UK for 2 years.. As she is a spouse of a EU citizen can she easily live and work in EU countries?? i presume it would require a visa, is this easily obtainable??

ta very much!!

kiwi_child

I think you should check out BHC website: www.britaus.net

I'd think you might need to get her a UK Spousal visa or something similar. Travelling on an OZ passport without a UK spousal visa would mean she'd have to apply for visas and work permits I'd think.

JAJ

She would need a different permit for each country. You'll get more meaningful advice if you are clear about:

- what country you want to live and work in?; and
- when did your wife last live in the UK?
- what visa did she have in the UK?
- are you also an Australian citizen?

pintolane

Hi,

Answers to questions.....

- what country you want to live and work in? Countries we were thinking of were Italy and Spain..
- when did your wife last live in the UK? 2001 -2003
- what visa did she have in the UK? working holiday visa...
- are you also an Australian citizen? no, i am on a spouse visa Permenant resisdent.

thanks for your quick response!!

PL

ex_exile

I assume that you have already checked that she is not elligible to pick up an EU passport by decent?

pintolane

Hi ex_exile..

she decends from Chile, so no luck there!!!!

ex_exile

Her Grandparents too?

Was she ever married to an Irishman?

Dont give up so easily! there are plenty of options to explore that may get her into Europe via a backdoor

pintolane

Hi

She has no family associations with Europe apart from me, South American for generations!! although she only has an australian passport - not a chilean one!!

JAJ

It won't be easy for your wife to get Italian or Spanish citizenship, although you might be able to sponsor her to live there.

Why don't you live in the UK for 3 years, which would allow your wife to become naturalised British? She could then easily live elsewhere in the EEA.

It might also be a good idea for you to get your Australian citizenship before you leave.

pintolane

Hi JAJ,

We have no intention to get citizenship in Spain or Italy. All we want is to live there for 6 mths to a year in each country and be able to work.. As a EU citizen i thought it would be relatively simple. even getting a permit for each country.. how can we do that???

thanks

JAJ

Contact the Spanish and Italian Embassies. No-one here is likely to know, sorry.

fnord

I've worked in both Italy and Spain but this was about 15 years ago so things have probably changed.

For what its worth, I worked in Italy because I was sponsored by a company in Italy as a student. I had to wait about 2 months in London for the visa. This was a short term visa and when I tried to get a "proper" working visa, I found it impossible, even with company backing.

In Spain, things were even worse. The company that hired my believed they could sponsor me but found they actually couldn't. Tried all sort of things until eventually I got married to my girlfriend who had PR in Spain but by that time I was ready to to leave the country anyway.

Funnily enough, about 6 months after I'd left, a friend of mine got a knock on the door from Spanish immigration asking where I was.

Needless to say, I'm making sure I have PR for Oz...

ex_exile

Before the EEA it was a real pain to get a work permit in Spain, I doubt that anything has gotten easier due to the amount of illegals that literally wash up on the shores. I suspect it will be way harder than you think but you could try posting in the relevent britishexpats forums.

Distance

Hello pintolane

Have a look at this website:

http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/nav/e...nce/index.html

It might give you some answers. Goodluck

Distance