Thanks for the replies guys.
Whilst I know that the UKBA website states:
The Surinder Singh judgment is incorporated into the EEA Regulations in Regulation 9. Family members of British nationals who meet the requirements of Regulation 9 are treated as family members of EEA nationals for the purposes of the EEA Regulations.
Applications for EEA family permits must meet the following criteria:
The British citizen must be residing in an EEA Member State as a worker or self-employed person or have been doing so before returning to the UK.
If the family member of the British citizen is their spouse or civil partner, they are living together in the EEA country or must have entered into the marriage or civil partnership and have been living together in the relevant EEA country before the British citizen returned to the UK.
Thus, not mentioning the fact that it does not matter that I will be working in a country of which I have citizenship, I am concerned as to whether or not they would try to use the following against me in the judgement later (under Singh), especially because of the following:
EUN2.16 Can family members of dual British / Irish nationals qualify for an EEA family permit?
Until 16 July 2012 persons who held British citizenship and who were also nationals of another EEA member state could rely on that EEA nationality to benefit from the terms of the Directive. This was because Regulation 2 of the 2006 Regulations did not preclude such dual national British citizens from benefitting from free right movements.
The definition of EEA national in Regulation 2 was amended on 16 July 2012 to preclude dual British citizens/EEA nationals from benefitting from the Directive and therefore also to preclude their family members from relying upon free movement rights.
and:
A dual citizen who has never exercised his/her right of free movement and has always resided in the Member State of which s/he is a national cannot be said to be a beneficiary of the Citizen’s Directive. It no longer makes any difference that the citizen in question is also a national of a Member State other than that where s/he resides. http://lawcentreni.org/EoR/immigration/ ... tions.html (I see this as meaning me working in Ireland as a Brit holding an Irish passport which I haven't presented for purposes of employment)
At the moment, we are both working in China and our civil partnership was registered at a British Consulate in 2011. I have not used my Irish passport in the UK (except perhaps for flights between Belfast and GB around 2006). I can't be sure. If I am carrying both passports with me when traveling to GB, I just pull out the one that's closest to hand. However, I have been living outside the UK (in China) since the end of 2006 and have not been back in the UK more than 3 times (only for holidays lasting about 3 weeks at a time). I have never used my Irish passport in the ROI and all my (UK) documents (National Insurance/jobs etc.), where necessary, have used my British passport.
The only thing that kind of concerns me now is that (when we were considering applying for an EEAFP for my partner to join me to the UK in 2011, I went to the Irish Embassy in Beijing to get a certificate stating that my Irish passport is genuine. I'm not sure how closely visa and consular services would be linked in the Irish Embassy, but I don't want to give myself (and my partner) and trouble/stress for the future.
I would be devastated if the British authorities somehow knew that I had Irish citizenship and rejected his request for residence documentation under Singh. This would mean moving away to a third country (Spain/Denmark etc) just to do the whole process again. Would they also think that it was strange that a British citizen born in Northern Ireland (who obviously has access to an Irish passport based on my date of birth) chose to move to Ireland (just a few miles, perhaps, from his hometown) for a period (probably about 6-8 months) to work as a waiter or other job, despite having 2 degrees, a Masters, 4 years of professional work experience and being fluent in Mandarin Chinese? Haha.
I am not really nationalistic in any way and would have no problem (personally) giving up my Irish passport just so that we can be together in the future. I have read that it's possible to get it back in the future anyway, because I'm not a naturalized citizen. I was born in N. Ireland in 1980 so there is no question about having access to Irish citizenship.
To cut a long story short, I'd still be willing to renounce Irish citizenship (temporarily) and get my partner back to the UK first.
I'm really just a worrier, who wants to go the path of least resistance. I don't have that much by way of savings and do not think that trying to take things to court would be the best way to go!
Thanks so much for your speedy replies again.
C
and your spouse cares for your kids etc.... )
