Lois001

Hello, I'm Lois and I've just signed up to this site for a bit of information regarding the SS route. I see there are already many threads on this so I do apologise! I will read through some of them to see if any answer my questions below.

I'm getting married to my Tunisian partner this May and I'm weighing up the pro's and cons of going the UK spouse visa route, or the SS route (via Ireland).

So here are my concerns -

UK spouse visa route - I meet the income requirement of £18,600, but I'm worried about the long processing times, the extortionate fee's, and the high rejection rate. I'm also worried that the visa lasts only 2.5 years so we'll have to go through the process again in two years time.

SS route - I don't know enough about really. I understand that If I live and work in an EU state for 6 months, I can exercise EU treaty rights and take my husband to the UK with me on an EEA family permit? I don't have children and I live at home with my parents, so I have no real commitments tying me down in the UK.

Please can some kind person help me understand the SS route a bit better, there's still stuff I'm unsure of -

Say I go to Ireland, find a job and an apartment, which visa will my husband need to enter Ireland to live with me? Can he work on this visa?

After a period of say 6 months, we want to move back to the UK, he will need an EEA family permit, which I believe is free? Yes?

How long can he stay in the UK for on an EEA family permit? What happens when the EEA family permit runs out?

Sorry I know there seems to be hundeds of topics on this and I've had a quick look on the internet but can't seem to find anything that directly answers my questions, I'm on information overload lol.

Thank you in advance.

BritInParis

I would hold off making any decisions about which route to take between now and May as the effects of the tightening of the rules surrounding EEA Family Permits at the beginning of the year are not yet fully known.

However to answer your questions:

1. Your husband will need an Irish visitor visa to travel with you to Ireland. Once there you can apply for his residence card based on EEA rules. He will be able to work on this residence card.

http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages..._Member_States

2. An EEA Family Permit is free. Applications submitted in Dublin are currently only taking a day or so to be decided.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eu...family-permit/

3. An EEA Family Permit lasts for six months. Your husband can stay indefinitely in the UK after this however if he leaves the UK after the expiration date he will need to reapply for another permit. It's therefore advisable to apply for a residence card. He will need to surrender his passport to the Home Office and it can take several months (up to a maximum of six) but he will then receive a residence card which will allow him to enter and leave the UK for five years. This costs £55 currently. After five years he can apply for confirmation of his right to permanent residence. Again this costs £55. At this point, providing he meets the other requirements, such as English language ability and knowledge of the life in the UK, your husband would be eligible to apply for naturalisation. This will require the full fee as applied to anyone else seeking naturalisation as a British citizen, currently £874.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eu...uments-family/

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br...aturalisation/

JAJ

I didn't think that processing times were all that long for the U.K. spouse visa route, and it is often possible to do in person applications. Are you sure you should be so quick to rule it out if you qualify? Perhaps do further research. The fees may be somewhat higher, but living in another EEA state is not likely to be a cost-free exercise either.

WEBlue

6 months used to be the recommended time for the Singh Route, but that may not be true any more. The rules on the "effective residence period" in the EU country changed last month. So as BritinParis says, no one really knows how long a period to recommend now. It may well be longer than 6 months however.

Here's a long thread about it from Immigrationboards.com. It's not easy to read but there are some immigration experts there who may get a clue about how Singh will work once the dust has settled around these new changes.
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea...d-t152660.html