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Hi all,

I'm hoping that someone can help with some advice on my particular situation ...

I recently applied for a UK residence card using the EEA2 route. I recently received my COA and successfully requested and received my travel documents (passport and BRP). When the Home Office returned my passport and BRP, I also received a letter advising that if I were to travel, I should apply for an EEA family permit before returning to the UK.

My husband is German and we are planning to go to the Munich area for 2 weeks around the Christmas holidays. Should I go ahead and apply for the EEA family permit at the UK Consulate in Munich? If so, how long does this process take (taking into consideration office closures for the holidays, etc)? Or is it even necessary to apply for the family permit? Before I got the letter, I was planning on taking our marriage certificate, my COA, and a letter from my husband's employer to show that he's exercising treaty rights in the UK to show to the immigration office upon landing at Heathrow in the new year.

I still have a valid BRP under my previous Tier 2 visa valid until mid-January 2017. I presume I can still enter the UK via this route in case the immigration officer at Heathrow isn't too understanding of what I feel to be quite a common situation?

Please advise!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Your no-visa plan may work if you travel on airline that understands the nuances of free movement;
otherwise you may not even get aboard.

FP is stress-free option.

Use of BRP/T2 should work but is slightly odd as you are now on EU migration trajectory.

Other option could be to drive through Calais, then you wouldnt have to worry about taking a plane. However I havent tried this route with the CoA.
(I am currently in the same situation as you are, we also wanted to travel. Still not entirely decided as our decision depends on other factors as well.)

One thing you do not mention is, how you will enter the Schengen area without family status visa or RC. Will you also show your papers at German entrance? Same approach could be used, but just be aware that there are two steps. 1) entry to Germany 2)entry back to UK

I emailed with Swiss, Dutch and Irish embassies. They all insisted that I need a visa to enter their countries ( so at embassy level they did not recognise freedom of movement of spouse while travelling with the EU citizen). On the top of this, they all also insisted that I cannot apply for an EU spouse visa as I am not holding a UK residence card. This last part I find bullshit, but they somehow all insist in the same direction.

About Munich processing time:
I was living in Munich before I moved to the UK. I applied twice from Munich they took exactly 10 working days. This was last year before Brexit vote.

Good luck! Please keep me posted about your decision and experience as I am very much interested to find out too!

[quote="ijjlian"]Other option could be to drive through Calais, then you wouldnt have to worry about taking a plane. However I havent tried this route with the CoA.
(I am currently in the same situation as you are, we also wanted to travel. Still not entirely decided as our decision depends on other factors as well.)

One thing you do not mention is, how you will enter the Schengen area without family status visa or RC. Will you also show your papers at German entrance? Same approach could be used, but just be aware that there are two steps. 1) entry to Germany 2)entry back to UK

I emailed with Swiss, Dutch and Irish embassies. They all insisted that I need a visa to enter their countries ( so at embassy level they did not recognise freedom of movement of spouse while travelling with the EU citizen). On the top of this, they all also insisted that I cannot apply for an EU spouse visa as I am not holding a UK residence card. This last part I find bullshit, but they somehow all insist in the same direction.

About Munich processing time:
I was living in Munich before I moved to the UK. I applied twice from Munich they took exactly 10 working days. This was last year before Brexit vote.

Good luck! Please keep me posted about your decision and experience as I am very much interested to find out too![/quote]

I am a US citizen, so don't need a visa to the Schengen area.

Would you happen to know how to contact the UK visa application centre in Munich? I contacted the UK consulate there which automatically redirected me to the application centre website but there is no contact info to be found!

asmart wrote:Hi all,

...

I presume I can still enter the UK via this route in case the immigration officer at Heathrow isn't too understanding of what I feel to be quite a common situation?

Please advise!

Thanks in advance for your help.

An inspiring and related case:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 20299.html

The person in Prague case already holds a RC of a family member from Czech Republic. That is an easier claim than holding a CoA from the UK