# Bringing girlfriend - already in the EU as an illegal imigrant - to the Netherlands



## ThePortuguese (Dec 28, 2016)

Hi everyone, I have been searching all over the internet and found this forum - among others - and have read about my question but could not find an answer that is even close. 

I'm an EU national (Portuguese) and next March I will move to and start working in the Netherlands - already with a contract, and housing provided by the employer.

My girlfriend is a non-EU national (she's Brazilian) that has been living and working in Portugal illegaly - without a working visa or residence permit - since March 2016. Thus she is ilegal in the whole EU and could not even obtain a tourist visa for the Netherlands to visit me there. 

We love each other have been in a serious exclusive relationship since 3 months ago. We want to live together in the Netherlands but not marry or enter a registed partnership for now - only after we have lived together for 2 or 3 years.

From what I have been reading, after March as I'll be a non-Dutch working in the Netherlands, we might be able to apply for a residence permit for her to come live with me in the Netherlands by "verification under EU law". However, we are not sure if we can apply even in this case where she is already in the EU ilegally, without a visa or residence permit - plus with the issue that it would be while she is still living in Portugal as she could not come with me to the Netherlands due to not even having a tourist visa. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

You could have a very hard road ahead of you. I'm not sure that a relationship of 3 months will be considered a "long term" relationship for residence permit purposes. And, from what I can tell, you would need to offer proof of having lived together for some significant period of time prior to her arrival in the Netherlands - sharing a common address and having bills addressed to you both at that address.

It would seem that the first thing you're going to need to do is to get her situation sorted out before you try to bring her to the Netherlands with you. That could necessitate her returning to Brazil to go through the visa process (for the Netherlands, I guess) or check to see what the visa rules are in NL to see if there is some way for her to "regularize" herself after arrival. At this point, even getting married or entering into a civil union may not be possible, given that she does not have residence anywhere.

Maybe someone else will have some other suggestion.
Cheers,
Bev


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## ThePortuguese (Dec 28, 2016)

Thanks for your response Bev, it helped clarify our ideas. Our new plan is for her to  go back to Brazil and wait there for 6 months. Then come to the Netherlands on a tourist visa - this would allow her to live 3 months with me (the time allowed for a tourist visa)

After the first month of her living with me in the Netherlands we would apply for her residence permit through the EU verification law procedure. As you correctly point out, as by that point we will only have proof of living together for a month, this relationship would be considered not long term and the residence permit would be denied.

However, in the meantime while we wait for the outcome of the request - which would likely take a few months - she would be living with me legally. So by the end of the process we could resubmit the residence request now having the proof of living together for the 6 months.

Am I being too optimistic? To be honest this sounds too easy to be true


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

The big glitch I can see might be that the Dutch authorities wouldn't count the time you were living together on "borrowed time" toward the residence permit. Or, they may simply refuse to take the application, seeing that you had not met the co-habitation requirement. (That's the likely scenario as to how it would work here in France, but the rules here are a bit different.)

If she's willing to go back to Brazil for six months, wouldn't there be the possibility of her going for a full one-year "visitor" visa. She wouldn't be able to work, but it would definitely open up more possibilities for you.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Marinos (Aug 15, 2013)

My 50cents worth 

Had same issues as my partner is Canadian

Easiest way is get married, draw up a legal document to protect yourselves if you decide to go your own ways and life goes on. 

good luck


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