EU Rights of Free Movement

I thought I should explain in a little bit more detail for anyone who is interested how I am able to move to Paris and take my husband with me.

Most of us take the ability to travel to France for granted, If you're from the EU or your country has a visa-waiver agreement with France you can spend up to 3 months in France. If you are an EU citizen you will even be allowed to work, study or retire there. If you do need a visa to enter France (or the Schengen area as a whole) that makes things a lot harder for you- unless you are married to an EU citizen.

EU directive 2004/38/EC basically outlines the rights of EU citizens for moving freely within the member states. For example if you're Spanish, you can move to the UK or if you are Estonian you can go and retire in France. Freedom of movement is one of the fundamental principles of the EU and personally the most important. It's also probably the one that has impacted most of us.

These rights are extended to family members, which usually means the spouse/partner but can go as far an an aunt or sibling. For more info about the particulars here are some useful links:

European Commission
Freedom of Movement in the EU blog
Europa Guide to Free Movement

My husband is subject to the entry visa requirement as he is a Kosovan citizen which has delayed our move to Paris quite significantly but everything should go smoothly once we are there- as smooth as any bureaucratic in France can be at least!

The visa he was issued was issued free of charge, and legally should have been processed at an accelerated rate. It wasn't and the staff at the embassy we visited hadn't even heard of the EU regulation that has existed for nearly a decade. We found Solvit very helpful so they are definitely worth contacting if you have any trouble. The consular staff wouldn't listen to reason and the appeals process is lengthly and Solvit had it sorted in less than 3 months- All it took was a phone call, gently reminding the embassy of the rules.

We were given conflicting advice by several different officials but YourAdvice Europe answered all the questions we had about which visa he should have applied for. You only need a short stay visa to enter France legally, not a long-stay. If you don't normally require a visa to enter France you won't need one if you are planning on moving there as the non-EU spouse of an EU citizen either- There is a fairly short list of countries who's citizens require a visa just to get in. He was issued with a 3 month Schengen Visa that states he is a family member of an EU citizen.

They are not allowed to request any of the usual documents required for a Schengen visa; no insurance documents, proof of means of support, invitation letter etc. Just proof of your family tie and id! The only legal grounds for refusal are if you constitute a genuine and present threat to the security of the member state (basically unless you are an evil criminal/terrorist they have to let you in).

Sadly for Frenchies, it's actually easier for me to take my spouse to France than for a French citizen to do the same. My husband won't be subject to intrusive medical examinations or french language/citizenship lessons. I'm not sympathetic to any whinging about this because it's even more difficult for a British person to take their husband/wife to the UK. The best thing about the rights of free movement is that you are not expected to pay for anything- residency cards are free, visas are free and there are no financial requirements either. Its currently about £800 to apply for a spouse visa for the UK and you don't get that back if they say no. The UK is one of the worst offenders for not correctly implementing EU immigration law in my books. Spain is also pretty sneaky and there are plenty of instances where the Kingdom of Spain has lost an immigration case against the European Commission.

It actually specifies on my husbands visa that he cannot enter Spain (or Greece) because they have not accepted Kosovo's independence from Serbia despite the fact that more than 120 other countries have. Because they don't think Kosovo is a thing, his passport isn't considered valid. Technically, I can legally take him to Spain and Greece because they're in the EU but I don't know how that would actually work. It will probably take the European Commission taking them to court over the issue for them to follow the law though. I guess our Greek holiday will have to wait :(

Sorry for continually saying 'take him with me' but it's because of the law...He can only travel within the EU (without getting a tourist or other visa) if he is accompanying me. As my mother put it, he is my suitcase as far as France is concerned.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have about moving to somewhere new in the EU and your rights to do so.