Imapolicecar

Hi everyone,

I'm resisting a rant over the UK Border Agencies' pages (badly organised and ambiguous would be a compliment) .. but barely. I haven't been able to contact the agency either as emails are not currently being delivered due to a routing failure.

Anyway, to business ...

I'm British and my wife is Chinese. We used to live and work in Austria which is where we met and married. My wife has a 10 year residency card for Austria (with 8 years validity left) although we live and work in China.

At the moment, it (possibly) seems that she may have to apply for a general visa (£85) and run through a whole lot of issues which may mean we have to pre-book a lot of flights, transport and hotels, or get people to sponsor her. An absolute pain ...

At the same time, it appears a non-UK EEA citizen living outside the EEA can get their non-EEA spouse in on a free EEA visa (which we had before from Austria). Although I'm an EEA citizen, it appears that this excludes us as we have to be living in an EEA country right now. (I feel a little discriminated against at this point.)

So, our plan to fly to Vienna (no visas required for either of us) and then to the UK in the summer is considerably harder, and more expensive, than many other people who are not UK citizens. Somehow just doesn't seem right!

Also, we can't fly to Vienna and then get a family visa as the timing will be bad and it would be a tad illegal.

Does anyone have any experience of this and what I can do about it?

Many thanks,

Ima

pennylessinindia

So what are you planning on doing in the UK you say it is just a visit, how long for and do neither of you intend to work?
I think the visit visa would be the best one to apply for, if you have family in the UK it may be a family visit visa
From the brief information you have submitted I do not think a family permit is the correct visa as you would appear to be residing in China and not Austria. It may be easier to apply from China before you start out

Imapolicecar

We are planning to visit my mother (she in an Alzheimer's home) and pootle off to visit Edinburgh and friends in Dundee. Why on Earth would we work? We have full time jobs in China and this is our vacation.

Thanks for your reply, but I'm afraid it really doesn't answer the question knowledgeably. The family visa is described as PROBABLY not the one to use by the Border Agency. That's the ambiguity. If it said NOT that would be fine.

SanDiegogirl

You need to apply for a general visitors visa.

You and your wife are living and working in China so are not eligible to use European EEA rules for exercising of free movement of peoples for work purposes

From reading the UKBA site you have a number of offices in China at which you can apply.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/co...e=UK%20English

pennylessinindia

A family visit visa is very much the correct visa you wife is visiting her mother in law! No need to apply for a general visa , the family visa would be a much easier option and allows the right of appeal too.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/po.../ecg/vat/vat2/
should make it clear. May be easier to apply from home.