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Hi,

I have a few questions regarding an EEA2 application. I am Irish, working in the UK and my fiancée is Japanese, living in Japan. She is coming to the UK in April as a tourist. 10 days later, we will get married in Ireland.
The plan is then to return to the UK (on April 24), where she will apply for a residence card with form EEA2.

First question: As I understand it, an EEA family permit is not strictly necessary? In any case, it would be difficult to get before we are married as we have not lived together for more than 2 months at a time.

Second question: I have to travel abroad on May 3rd for 10 days and will need my passport. My fiancée is currently applying for a 5 month job at a university that would start on May 1st. She may have the right to work immediately on our return but the university require the certificate of application. If I wasn't travelling she would probably receive the certificate one week into May. It may be possible to postpone the start date that long however, if we only apply on my return, we would probably not recieve the certificate until the end of May.
Could we apply without sending them my passport and still get a certificate of application? I guess not.
If I send them my passport with the application, I would have to ask for it back straight away, perhaps not long enough for them to issue the certificate.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

What you can try is apply now for residence certificate for yourself (form eea1) and use the certificate when applying for your wife's eea2. They might still require to see your passport but if you explain your circumstances and point to the the fact they just saw your passport a couple of months before, they might be less strict. Don't know if this would work but you can try. Just apply now so you can get the passport back in time to travel for your wedding.

I didn't think of that!
Thanks for the suggestion.

Jambo wrote:What you can try is apply now for residence certificate for yourself (form eea1) and use the certificate when applying for your wife's eea2. They might still require to see your passport but if you explain your circumstances and point to the the fact they just saw your passport a couple of months before, they might be less strict. Don't know if this would work but you can try. Just apply now so you can get the passport back in time to travel for your wedding.

This is a good idea.

All that is required for a residence card is applicant's passport, marriage certificate and EU national's residence certificate so your idea is fine. I would suggest that this is pointed out to UKBA at time of spouse's application.

A spouse's certificate of application should take around 2 weeks to be returned.