- You are travelling in possession of a "Residence card of a family member of a Union citizen"
- In Ireland this is the 4EUFam-Card
- AND together with the EU family relation
- OR joining the EU family relation at your destination
The European Commission describes this >>here<<:Article 5
Right of entry
1. (...)
2. ... For the purposes of this Directive, possession of
the valid residence card referred to in Article 10 shall exempt
such family members from the visa requirement.Article 10
Issue of residence cards
1. The right of residence of family members of a Union
citizen who are not nationals of a Member State shall be
evidenced by the issuing of a document called 'Residence card
of a family member of a Union citizen' (...)
Unfortunately these facts are not known to all embassies, airline staff and immigration officials, therefore I compiled this guide which contains:YOU MIGHT BE REQUIRED TO HAVE AN ENTRY VISA
Possession of the valid residence card, (...) issued by any Member State, exempts you from the visa obligation not only in the Member State which issued the residence card, but in all Member States.
- Emails received from many Dublin based EU embassies about this. (scroll down, continued on the next page...)
- A list of all embassie's websites and their respective information about this. (next page, or click >>here<<)
- The emails and websites give an overview whether the law is known and respected in each individual country.
- Unfortunately this is not always the case.
- A >>practical guide<< on how to be able to use this law.
- Last but not least I filed a >>petition with the European Parliament<< asking them to consider the mess this law created.
The replies are listed below:---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Christian
Date: Sun, Aug 17, 2008
Subject: Visa necessary?
To:all EU embassies
Dear Madam or Sir,
my wife (Lebanese Citizen) and myself (German) envisage visiting [your country] for a weekend-trip.
My wife is in posession of an Irish EU4-Fam-card, as per attached documents.
Will we have to apply for a visa? If yes, could you please outline the procedure?
Thanks and regards, Christian
Stating a visa is needed:
- Czech Republic - dublin@embassy.mzv.cz
- France - chancellerie@ambafrance.ie
- Greece - embgr@eircom.net
- Lithuania - amb.ie@urm.lt
- Slovakia - slovak@iol.ie
- Germany - germany@indigo.ie (their website sais it's OK)
- Hungary - hungarian.embassy@eircom.net // resent to mission.dub@kum.hu
- Portugal - correio@dgaccp.pt // resent original question to ptembasseydublin@tinet.ie
- Spain - embaspan@eircom.net // emb.dublin.vis@maec.es // (their website sais it's OK)
- UK - consular.dubli@fco.gov.uk (address re-confirmed on their website - looks good)
- Bulgaria - bulgarianembassydublin@eircom.net
- Denmark - dubamb@um.dk
- Estonia - embassy.dublin@mfa.ee
- Finnland - sanomat.dub@formin.fi
- Italy - ambasciata.dublino@esteri.it
- Latvia - embassy.ireland@mfa.gov.lv
- Luxemburg - emb@luxembourg.co.uk
- the Netherlands - dub-info@minbuza.nl
- Poland - info@dublin.polemb.net
- Romania - ambrom@eircom.net
- Slovenia - vdb@gov.si
- Sweden - ambassaden.dublin@foreign.ministry.se
- 4 countries (>>Austria, Belgium, Cyprus and Malta<<) already confirmed this is correct in earlier contacts (=a visa is NOT needed), so I didn't ask again.
- I also sent this email to the Norwegian ( emb.dublin@mfa.no ) and the Icelandic ( icemb.london@utn.stjr.is ) embassies, but I have no clue at all what their answer should be. (They are Schengen, but as they're not in the EU I assume they are not bound by 2004/38/EC.)
General
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Christian
Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: visa
To: ...
Dear xyz,
Thanks for your fast reply. I do have some questions around the visa-procedure:Visa necessary at all?
I found the following information on the website of the European Commission:
http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/nav/en/c ... ex_en.html
As my wife in in possession of an EU4Fam-card, which is the Irish version of the "Residence Card for EU family members" as referred to above, I was hoping that we do not need a separate Visa?YOU MIGHT BE REQUIRED TO HAVE AN ENTRY VISA
(...)
Possession of the valid residence card, referred to in the relevant fact sheet, issued by any Member State, exempts you from the visa obligation not only in the Member State which issued the residence card, but in all Member States.Additional Documentation
If we still do need a visa, I hope it can be granted providing our passports and our marriage-certificate (only), as per the following?
As your right of entry is derived from your family ties with a Union citizen, all the Member State consular officials can ask you to produce for the visa application is your passport and a document establishing the family ties with a Union citizen, such as marriage or birth certificate and proof of dependence, where applicable.Free of charge?
Furthermore, as my wife is the family-member of an EU-citizen (me), the visa should be issued free of charge?
Could you fill me in about the necessary procedure, considering the above?The Member State of destination should grant you every facility to obtain the necessary visa, which shall be issued free of charge as soon as possible and on the basis of an accelerated procedure. In any event, even in the most difficult cases, the visa should be issued no later than a couple of weeks following the date of application.
Thanks and regards,
All answers received are listed beneath and also included in a >>petition to the European Parliament<<.
After having waited 8 working days for replies, I sent >>this<< email to all embassies at once, hoping to improve overall awareness of this law where necessary.