jkingbd

Hi,
any advice would be appreciated. I am a U.K. citizen living in the US with my USC wife of 2 years. I recently had the restrictions removed from my permanent status. We want to move to europe to live and work in either France or the U.K. My questions -
Does she have the same E.U. privelages that I do, free to move and work across europe?
Would she need a different visa for the U.K and France if we decied to live in both places?
How difficult s it for her to get a visa to live / work in europe.

Thank you very much

Noorah101

Hi jkingbd,

I'm not sure how it works in regards to your wife moving to the UK...but you know that in order to maintain your PR status you need to be living in the USA, right?

Is your living/working in the EU a temporary assignment? Or a permanent move? If permanent, you'll be abandoning your USA PR status. If temporary, make sure you get the proper documents for returning to the USA after a long absence. You should maintain your residence in the USA if it's a temporary assignment.

Best Wishes,
Rene

evoal2003

Your asking the wrong people here. I wouldn't have thought that she wouldn't share *your* european status, however I base that decision only on common sense. Try looking up the web site of the UK embassy or ask the question in the europe forum.

Good luck.

nettlebed

The answer, AFAIK, is that your UK citizenship ONLY gives her rights in the UK, not in other EU countries. She would need to acquire status of some sort in the UK, such as citizenship, before she would have rights in the EU, or more directly, she would need to get the appropriate visas on a per-country basis in Europe.

The international rights within the EU are on the basis of treaties signed between EU countries. The US is not a signatory, hence no rights: they are not transitive through your UK citizenship.

Also, I'm sure you know this already, but make sure you get the necessary permissions to be out of the US for any length of time, otherwise you will be deemed to have abandoned your LPR status...

meauxna

There is a new EU Family permit you should look into; I believe it lets her move around to different countries. If you choose one country to move to, she can usually get a residency permit based on her marriage to you.. for example, in Greece, I got a 5-year permit based on marriage to my UKC spouse.
The UK settlement visa is a different critter, and it must be applied for in the US before she goes.

Our plan might interest you--we're in the same timeline as you, but plan to stay in the US until my husband naturalizes to USC next year so that we may come and go as we please, and not be concerned with the issue Rene brings up in her post. Since you are probably near to being eligible to file yourself, had you considered that?
If she wants to become a dual US/UK citizen, she will have to live in the UK for 3 years as their version of a Permanent Resident.

JAJ

Most European states have an EEA family permit (maybe called something else locally) which allows citizens of EEA states to sponsor non-EEA member state citizens for temporary residence.

However there is no guarantee that this will ever lead to permanent residence or citizenship rights for the non-EEA member state citizen family members.

By contrast, if a British person sponsors a US spouse into the UK via the 'proper' route, then the US spouse can become a naturalised British citizen after three years.

It would however make sense for the OP to get US citizenship (if he sees his future in the US) before thinking about living overseas. As long as he's ok with the tax issues inherent in US citizenship.

Jeremy