melbo

My wife holds a UK passport (by descent). I'm Canadian. We've been married for 14 years. We currently live in France (legally, tax-paying, etc) but want to move to the UK permanently. We are both self-employed. I would not be able to get French citizenship any time soon (language issues).

We've gone over the Spouse Immigration-UK section, read most of the related related gov documents, and from what we can tell we have all the necessary documents and financial requirements to begin the process. As far as we can tell that process would begin with us getting an Entry Clearance visa for me (the Canadian).

What we can't find is where we apply for said Entry Clearance. All the places we've looked seem to be for people without the Brit spouse part of the equation and afaict that's a pretty important piece of the puzzle.

So, where does one apply for Entry Clearance from outside the UK? We've been told that visa4uk.fco.gov.uk is the place to begin but again, it's not crystal clear that that's where we go given our situation.

Can anyone confirm or deny that visa4uk.fco.gov.uk is the correct starting point?

michali

Yes, that the correct starting point. That allows you to apply online and you also download and complete Appendix 2 which covers the financial requirements.

not2old

Since you live, work & that your 'centre of life' is in France, likely have a residence card etc etc, Have you looked at your eligibility for the [no-cost] 'EEA family permit' route (under the Surinder Singh rules)?

https://www.gov.uk/family-permit/surinder-singh

mikelincs

That would have been my suggestion as well, it would seem as though, depending on how long they have been in France, they have already fulfilled the requirements and should be able to get the EEA Family permit now.

melbo

Many thanks all, this is great news!

We've been in France -- me with residency papers -- since 2004. A quick browse would indicate that we qualify on all necessary counts so this is looking really good. I'll be going through the details over the weekend but you've already made both of our weeks! Thanks again. &

michali

I missed that! Sorry melbo!

melbo

No worries! It's live and learn for us all. We've been stumbling down disheartening and dead-end paths on this for months now, it's such a BIG relief to finally get some good news.

Later: read all the docs and yes, we do indeed qualify on all accounts (that I can see) for the EEA Family Permit - Surinder Singh path, specifically because of our time in an EU State. The document requirements are no problem, we've got heaps of everything they're asking for and then some.

Again, many thanks guys. This is wonderful, wonderful news for us!

melbo

So, our visa application is in. It was a very odd experience because the people you end up dealing with -- Teleperformance here in France -- are completely _not_ UKVI people! They're just a third-party hired to pre-process the applications. All they really do is gather your documents, do the biometrics and send you on your way. They can't answer questions, know nothing about the official process and not in a position to offer guidance or advice in any way. Pretty frustrating really.

So we've handed over all our stuff and now we wait, 2 to 3 weeks they said. Fingers (still) crossed!

WEBlue

You do mean your Family Permit application? Not quite the same as a usual 'visa', at least in my experience....
Best of luck! You certainly would seem to qualify.

melbo

Yes, we applied for an EEA Family Permit. Normally we'd be disqualified from this because my wife holds a UK passport but the "Surinder Singh" clause applies to us (as far as we can tell) so that's the route we took.

TBH though the whole business is very vague and unclear. As mentioned above all our stuff was handled by the designated 3rd party, a company called Teleperformance, and they could not and would not offer any insight into the process. They just verify that you have the basic requirements for your application, gather whatever additional documents you wish to offer, do your biometrics and you're out the door.

We thought they made a mistake so we asked them (via email) to clarify. They returned some generic "check our site for status updates" message. This is what they mean by "status updates":

WEBlue

Yes, your wife's UK passport would mean you would not be allowed to move straight to the UK from a non-EEA country without a UK spouse visa. but since you & your wife are lucky enough to be living in France together BEFORE moving to the UK...you can go the Surinder Singh Route.

Indeed it is!!! Some of us have been researching the SS Route ever since the new spouse visa financial rules changed so drastically in July 2012. And everything about it seems extremely vague, completely UN-transparent. But...that's the way it is, I guess.

Good luck to you. Lots are trying this!

Check out the Surinder Singh thread here for some examples of folks here who have successfully done SS (AngelaV is one):
http://britishexpats.com/forum/citiz...so-far-804420/

There's also a Facebook SS group (mentioned in the thread above).

melbo

Well I'm happy to report that things worked out for us! On Friday I picked up my passport with the UK "EEA FP" Visa inside. Now where's that "happy dance" emoticon?

When we actually had the thing in our hands for the first time we were a bit shocked. Our application had clearly and repeatedly stated that we wanted to settle in the UK. But when the French 3rd-party folks (aka Teleperformance) processed my application they marked it as "short-stay, non-settlement" and ignored my panicky attempts to inquire.

So when we got the Visa we immediately checked the dates of validity and sure enough, it expires 6 months from now. Seemed to us like they'd only given me a temporary/visitor's type permit. Major let-down!

Once I calmed down a bit we started investigating WTF had happened and -- long story short -- it turned out we've got exactly what we're supposed to have: the EEA FP (Family Permit) is a 6 month Visa. Visa holders are expected to apply for a long-term permit -- apparently called "EEA FM" -- once they are in the UK. I talked to two different UKVI sources to confirm this so at this point we're satisfied we're on the right track after all.

Of course no one at any point even mentioned this 6 month thing to us but there you go I guess.

So our Visa quest seems to have ended happily and our days in France are (quite literally) numbered: "T - 60" and counting.

In case it's not obvious UKVI must have approved us under the "Surinder Singh" ruling. Afaik that's the only way the spouse of a UK citizen ends up with an EEA FP Visa. And yes, it's simply because we've been living in the EU for an extended time. If that hadn't been the case our story would (it seems) have been quite different.

As a footnote I thought I might mention that as of this month (April 2015) the UK will apparently be complying with some EU ruling which will make the EEA FP Visa (or some sub-cases thereof) obsolete: supposedly your residency papers in an EU country will now serve the same function and will be sufficient to allow you entry into the UK. My wife dug this up within the last few days, thus far unconfirmed but if this case applies to you I'd say it's certainly worth looking into. If it's true you'll be spared a lot of frustration and anxiety.

As frustrating as the current system is -- primarily this anxiety-making process of dealing with the black hole 3rd party called Teleperformance -- I have to say that the whole business is pretty darn efficient: elapsed time from first meeting with Teleperformance to having my Visa in hand was 10 days.

mikelincs

Great news, glad BE was able to help you..