DLC

So the Home Office is inevitably dragging its heals when a British citizen returns to the UK and tries to bring their EU family members or non-EU family members resident in the EU back with them under the withdrawal agreement. What should be a simple application has turned into a month's long odyssey, presumably to let as few in as possible before the artificially-imposed March 2022 deadline as that's the way Global Britain rolls these days.

No queue-jumping for Britons seeking to return to UK with EU spouses
The Guardian view on families separated by Brexit: where’s the compassion?
Ministers accused of failing to secure rights of Britons with foreign spouses in EU

So on to my question which is about the other side of the coin. Does anyone know if UK citizens resident in the EU under the withdrawal agreement have family reunification rights to e.g. bring our parents here, or must we rely on our EU partners to apply to bring their in-laws here? If we have these rights, do they run out after a certain deadline? Difficult to find anything in the press about it.

EuroTrash

I am pretty sure all the details are in the Withdrawal Agreement. That's the place to look to find out what rights were agreed, not in the press because why would they be interested unless there's a good story in it.

Loco

Unfortunately the Withdrawal Agreement is of limited help.

For instance The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 still seems to apply.

Likewise Secretary of State for the Home Department v Immigration Appeal Tribunal and Surinder Singh [1992] 3 CMLR 358 applies at least for now.

Then of course there is Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It is very complex !!!

Best
Loco

DLC

I think I found the answer on the Netherland's Brexit site.

https://ind.nl/en/Pages/Family-reuni...er-Brexit.aspx

The cut-off date for application is the 30 September 2021. If they arrive before that date then they apply under the withdrawal agreement. If they arrive after that date then they apply under the Netherlands' immigration rules.

So I imagine the same would also be true for Spain and they would have to apply for one of these after the cut-off date:

• Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Unión - as a family member of the EU citizen, this includes Spanish citizens
• Autorización de residencia temporal por reagrupación familiar - as a family member of the British citizen

I guess the cut off date for family members in Spain would have been the end of June.