Non EU Spouse - Residence Card required for visa?

[Hmminator]

Hello,

I am a British citizen and I recently married a Filipina woman. I will be moving to Spain next week and our hope is that she will be able to join me as soon as her visa is taken care of.

Unfortunately, I've seen that a requirement in the application for her entry visa is a copy of my (the EU citizen) residence card in Spain. However, I've read that it can take several months to obtain a residence card in Spain and of course we don't want her visa application to be slowed down so much while we wait!

Is it legal for the Spanish embassy in the Philippines to require a copy of the EU citizen's Spanish residence card when processing Non EU Spousal Entry Visas? I have a copy of my employment contract for the company in Spain which I feel should be enough to prove my intent to live there but the embassy is saying I need a residence card.

Any help or advice with this would be much appreciated.

[Youssef2015]

A copy of your passport and your marriage certificate is enough work contract should also help! I went through the same problem and after some arguing and precipitance I got my visa in the end, Good luck

[Hmminator]

I'm a British citizen, my wife is Filipina.

This morning we went to the Spanish consulate in Manila to apply for an entry visa as I'm moving to Barcelona next week and she'd like to join me ASAP.

Unfortunately, they refused to even take her application as our marriage certificate isn't registered with the British government. She showed them the letter from the British embassy stating that they don't register foreign marriages in the UK and she even had a copy of EU Directive 2004/38/EC to prove that registration isn't required but they refuse to budge.

It's not even a denied application, they simply won't take the application at all or give us the reasons in writing for their refusal. They're completely refusing to follow the law at all.

What can we do here? I'm already planning on contacting Solvit and the European Commission - would it be worth hiring a lawyer too?

Any help or advice with this would be much appreciated.

[noajthan]

Posts merged.

[noajthan]

I'm a British citizen, my wife is Filipina.

This morning we went to the Spanish consulate in Manila to apply for an entry visa as I'm moving to Barcelona next week and she'd like to join me ASAP.

Unfortunately, they refused to even take her application as our marriage certificate isn't registered with the British government. She showed them the letter from the British embassy stating that they don't register foreign marriages in the UK and she even had a copy of EU Directive 2004/38/EC to prove that registration isn't required but they refuse to budge.

It's not even a denied application, they simply won't take the application at all or give us the reasons in writing for their refusal. They're completely refusing to follow the law at all.

What can we do here? I'm already planning on contacting Solvit and the European Commission - would it be worth hiring a lawyer too?

Any help or advice with this would be much appreciated.

Spain is problematic.
They will probably want a recent marriage certificate too.

See related case:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/immigr ... e#p1369521
- it has some links to Spanish websites and possible options you could work through.

Allternately look at Schengen visa for France or Portugal to get started and into Europe.

[Hmminator]

We have thought about getting a Schengen visa for France instead but I'm not sure how to navigate the short term aspect of it when she doesn't intend to return to the Philippines. The form asks for intended return date - are we just supposed to lie or what?

[fsa]

We have thought about getting a Schengen visa for France instead but I'm not sure how to navigate the short term aspect of it when she doesn't intend to return to the Philippines. The form asks for intended return date - are we just supposed to lie or what?

how did this work out for you?

[secret.simon]

The OP was successful.