Visa for the family member of an EU national

[14121974]

My wife is Chinese and I am French.I want to take my wife to settle in the Netherlands.My wife wanted to apply for visa as a family member of EU national,but Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Beijing sent an E-mail to me like the following .Is it something wrong?
Dear Peter,

As I do not quite understood the purpose of the stay of your wife, I wish to explain you to following.

-If she wants to visit The Netherlands she can apply a touristvisa, at which I have sent you a informationsheet about the requirements needed. There is no exceptions when applying for a touristvisa. Also when you are a EU national. Your wife does not contain a nationality of an European (Schengen) country.

-If your wife wishes to stay in The Netherlands longer than 90 days. Please visit the website www.ind.nl. There is a guideline which explains people outside the Schengen area how to get into The Netherlands.

Applying a Schengen Visa requirs a handlingfee of RMB 570,00.

Also visit our website www.hollandinchina.org for more detailled information.

Should you have further questions, afterwards. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Met vriendelijke groet,
Kind regards,

Kaho Tang
Visa/Consular department

Ambassade van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Liangmahe Nanlu 4
Beijing 100660
www.hollandinchina.org
tel. 10-85.32.02.00
fax. 10-85.32.03.00
PEK-CA@minbuza.nl or PEK-VISA@minbuza.nl [/color][/color]

[86ti]

Dear Peter,

As I do not quite understood the purpose of the stay of your wife, I wish to explain you to following.

Yes, that's probably too much to expect form embassy stuff...

First, you may want to look into Directive 2004/38/EC (and here an easy to read guide) which lays down the rights that you as an EU national and also you family members have. I am not sure what the correct visa would be (from the viewpoint of the Dutch) if you intend to settle down but in principle a Schengen C visa should do. You should get that for free and you should need only minimal supporting documents. If you have trouble you can try to contact SOLVIT. They may be able to help you.

[ciaramc]

sometimes Embassy staff just amaze me, firstly you should write back to the embassy quoting the Directive which 86 has linked on his previous post! They should be updated on the rules and regulations related to issuing visa which they clearly are not.

You certainly do not have to pay for a visa.....both you and your wife have free movement within the EU, and you do not have to apply for anything for the first 3 months you are there. Them write to Solvit sending them a copy of the reply you recieved from the embassy!!

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

EU embassies outside of the EU sometimes seem to think the Directive does not apply to them. It is very interesting. I saw the same thing from the Netherlands embassy in Colombia.

Do NOT pay the fee. The visa should be issued at no charge.

It also does not matter what visa you enter the Netherlands or another Schengen country on. Once in the Netherlands, you then have 90 days to find a job. Once the EU citizen has work, of any sort, then the non-EU can apply for a Residence Card.

http://www.ind.nl/EN/

Page of documents
http://www.ind.nl/EN/algemeen/brochures ... e=&origin=

Brochure on getting dutch visas
http://www.ind.nl/en/Images/4022_visum_ ... m6-598.pdf (english is in the last half)

[Jacky888]

When my husband applied for a schengen visa in Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Beijing. Next to my husband's Chinese passport , they asked me to provide documents to prove that :
- we are married (original Marriage certificate, legalised if Chinese),
- I am an EU national (copie of my German passport) and
- I am living in The Netherlands (original extract Dutch townhall registration).
I don't know if they are right to ask me to prove that I must be living in The Netherlands .If I don't live in the Netherland,what can I do about my husband's application for a Schengen visa?

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

When my husband applied for a schengen visa in Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Beijing. Next to my husband's Chinese passport , they asked me to provide documents to prove that :
- we are married (original Marriage certificate, legalised if Chinese),
- I am an EU national (copie of my German passport) and
- I am living in The Netherlands (original extract Dutch townhall registration).
I don't know if they are right to ask me to prove that I must be living in The Netherlands .If I don't live in the Netherland,what can I do about my husband's application for a Schengen visa?

He has to prove his and your identity (hence his and your passport) and that you are married (hence the marriage certificate). That comes from Directive 2004/38/EC and various court rulings.

Where are you living?

If you do live in the Netherlands and he is coming to join you, it seems reasonable and easy to provide the requested townhall registration.

If you do not live in the Netherlands, but you plan to travel there together for either a visit or to move there, then you do not have it. Simple. They still need to issue the visa.