# EU Citizen/Non EU Spouse



## tncpauld (Nov 28, 2015)

Hello.

My wife, child, and I currently reside in the United States. I have an a Polish Passport and National ID card through ancestry and if I am not mistaken, I can move to any EU country and have the right to live and work there? If that is the case, what steps need to be taken so that my Non EU wife and son can come with me?

Does registering our marriage with a Polish Consulate help our case in anyway? (We do not intend to move to Poland by the way).

Thank you in advance!


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## HKG3 (Jan 11, 2015)

Please see the link below for more information - 

http://www.germany.info/contentblob/4574162/Daten/5678141/SpouseEUEEANational.pdf


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## ALKB (Jan 20, 2012)

tncpauld said:


> Hello.
> 
> My wife, child, and I currently reside in the United States. I have an a Polish Passport and National ID card through ancestry and if I am not mistaken, I can move to any EU country and have the right to live and work there? If that is the case, what steps need to be taken so that my Non EU wife and son can come with me?
> 
> ...


Are your wife and son US citizens?

If so, depending on which EU country we are talking about, it's quite likely that they could arrive under the visa waiver and then apply for residence cards as family members of an EEA national. You as the EEA national need to exercise treaty rights, which mostly means you need to be economically active = work. Being a full time university student or self-sufficient also works but being in work is the easiest way.

The process is similar but not exactly the same in all EU countries.

Are you thinking about Germany?


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## Paul Moore (May 14, 2014)

It all depends where you want to move to within the EU. I'm a British citizen and my wife is a US citizen. Despite being married, she can't stay in the UK for longer than 6 months. She can't work there unless she gets sponsorship from a UK employer. Even if this happened, she'd have to leave when the job ended. Having said that, several other EU countries will allow her to arrive with me and look for a job once we have an address. I believe that Germany is one of these countries. Where are you planning on moving to? Do you speak other languages?


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## ALKB (Jan 20, 2012)

Paul Moore said:


> It all depends where you want to move to within the EU. I'm a British citizen and my wife is a US citizen. Despite being married, she can't stay in the UK for longer than 6 months. She can't work there unless she gets sponsorship from a UK employer. Even if this happened, she'd have to leave when the job ended. Having said that, several other EU countries will allow her to arrive with me and look for a job once we have an address. I believe that Germany is one of these countries. Where are you planning on moving to? Do you speak other languages?


*All* other EU countries allow your wife to accompany you when you search for work (for her to stay long term, you would need to exercise your treaty rights, though!).

The OP is a Polish citizen and has stated that he is not interested in moving to Poland, where domestic Polish immigration law would apply to his non-EEA family. So, basically he can move with his family under EU freedom of movement. How exactly to apply for a residence card for family members of an EEA national depends a little on the EEA country he is moving to, so it would be interesting to know which destination he has in mind.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

One further clarification: some EU countries are pickier than others about defining the phrase "exercising your EU rights." In France, for example, the EU partner needs to have a "statut" (basically a reason for living in France rather than elsewhere) - which can be work, school or as an "inactif." However, if the EU partner is "looking for work" his- or her-self, they may be considered to be only "visiting" the country and the non-EU partner may be refused a residence permit.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Paul Moore (May 14, 2014)

I agree with Bev: "exercising your EU rights" is easier said than done and some countries (the UK, for example) are extremely strict and often do not comply with general EU law when it comes to immigration. We should not banter the "exercise your EU rights" around too much. This man's spouse and child are (I assume) US citizens. It's not that easy (anymore) for US citizens to move to an EU country of their choice and live there for longer than 3 to 6 months, regardless of whether they are married to an EU citizen or not. Times have changed and recent terrorist attacks mean that governments are tightening security. One must always check first before making the move.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Not sure if I agree completely, Paul. My point was actually that it's important that the EU national in the situation must actually be settling in the third country they are choosing to live in - i.e. with a job, or as a student, or as a retiree with a pension. I know there are folks looking to take advantage of that Surinder Singh decision in order to qualify for an EEA family permit to settle in the UK - and it's worth pointing out that the UK has been cracking down on people showing that they really and truly have moved to and settled into another EU country. 

For the OP in this thread, the point really is that he must have the intention to settle in whatever country they choose. This means finding a job, which means having the ability to work in the country - qualifications, language, ability to find a place to live, etc. (And of course, for Poland where the OP has citizenship, the process is down to obtaining the appropriate visas for his American family members.)
Cheers,
Bev


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## Paul Moore (May 14, 2014)

Thanks for your response, Bev. I understood your point the first time round, and you are right, of course. I was just trying to explaining that where the UK is concerned, the government is doing its damnedest to stop non-EU spouses from settling in the UK with their British husbands or wives. As far as I'm aware, the Surinder Singh route is being shunned by the UK government, but I may be wrong. The most important thing is that recent terrorist activity has (understandably) forced all EU countries to clamp down on immigration. I've lived and worked in several EU countries for lengthy periods of time (a total of 12 years in Germany, for example, and several years in Spain and Scandinavia). I'm currently living in New York. 

Unfortunately, it looks like the OP is not interested in our advice.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

We may have just overwhelmed him with a bit "too much" information all at once. 

Actually, there's not all that evidence that EU countries are backing away from legit expats/immigrants using the regular routes for entry: visas, legit spouses of EU nationals, etc. Of course it can depend on which country the non-EU spouse is from, but that has been a long-standing issue here. 

Things are generally pretty straight-forward if the EU national is coming to another EU country to take up employment or study, or even to retire to another EU country, as long as they have a retirement pension. The cases where folks are running into problems is when an EU national is "claiming their right to free movement" with a non-EU spouse who is far more employable and looking to become the main family breadwinner. And we've had those sorts of situations well before the current refugee crisis.
Cheers,
Bev


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