Moving to UK

[habibcs]

Dear all,
First of all thanks for this forum and the whole service!
I am a Pakistani national (32 yrs old) married to Danish (28 yrs old) two years ago outside Denmark and now living in Copenhagen for around 1 year. Currently we both are on full-time job and I am also learning Danish language and in module 4 (out of 5, from the sprogskole).
I have got a decent offer from a company in London and planning to move their soon. Since my eligibility of working in London depends on my spouse so me and my spouse both are ready to resign from here (Copenhagen) and move to London. But we will resign only after I attain the residence visa for UK.
I have been reading this: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk and so far unsure of how to proceed.
According to UK my spouse is EEA national and I am non-EEA family member of an EEA national.
The information I am able to see so far is, if an EEA national is residing in UK only then he/she can call his family member on his/her behalf. But my case is different that I prefer me and my wife both relocate together based on my job contract, so that we able to show UK authorities that we are financially (and medically, insurance wise) self-sufficient. Otherwise let me know, how should I proceed legally and in most optimum manner. Also I am not sure, where should we apply from as online documentation seems to show that we can only apply 'non-EEA family member residency' from within UK while EEA national is already has residential address in UK.

Any suggestions, or anybody having faced similar experience will be of great help - on asap basis.

Thanks!

Few useful links related to my case:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucitizens/
Residence documents for European nationals:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... nationals/
How to apply for residence documents as a European citizen: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... /applying/
Residence documents for non-EEA family members of EEA nationals: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... ts-family/
The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

[dotGusten]

To my knowledge, this is different from the usual constellation, where an EU citizen is working in another EU country than his/her home country.

Since you are not an EU citizen, you need to apply for a working permit in UK, and your wife needs to apply for some visa to be able to stay in UK unless she is able to find a job.

If it was to be your wife who got a job offering in UK, all the rules, as you can read in this site, would apply.

Perhaps the best help could be found in websites offering help for Pakistanian people wanting to work in UK?

[habibcs]

Thanks for your reply.
It is not possible for me to obtain the work permit for UK since the company I have the job opportunity does not offer one, unless there is some other way out, I am not aware of.
My wife, can live, work in UK without any visa, unless she wants to join with non-EEA family member and therefore she has to show that she is exercising the Treaty Rights (working, self-employed, student or economically self-sufficient) in UK.
We prefer this route economically self-sufficient:
If you are economically self-sufficient, you need to supply evidence of comprehensive sickness insurance for yourself and any family members included in your application. You also need to supply evidence of funds sufficient to maintain yourself and any family members included in your application during the time you intend to reside on this basis. These funds can come from the employment or self-employment of any of your family members legally working and residing in the UK with you. Documentary evidence of their employment or funds should be supplied.

Based on that and all links in my previous post, it seems that, my wife has to first go to UK alone, obtain a residential address, show her bank statement, (and that I have a job offer in London) and show that she is covered with medical insurance (are all danes medical insurance covered in EU?) and then raise the new application for me to join her. -- So far it seems only this type of scenario would work for me but is quite difficult and time consuming in order to be able to join my new job and for my wife to resign from here.
Can there be a better way?

[dotGusten]

If you think you are able to fulfill all the requirements to be self-sufficient, and have the medical insurance covered, then you will be able to let your wife go to London to find accomodation and perhaps a job.

When she is settled, you can apply to follow her, and start looking for the job.

But why take all this risk, if you both have a job now in Denmark? The crisis is world wide, and it might be difficult to get a job.

And if the company offering you the job, is not willing to participate in getting the work permit, I personally would not regard them as being serious. It would be easier for them to get a local with the same competencies?

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas ... n/working/

[habibcs]

According to my search now on the UKBA website:

A)
Rights and responsibilities (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... sibilites/)
Family members who are not EEA or Swiss nationals
If your family members are not EEA or Swiss nationals, they may need to apply for an EEA family permit before they can come to the UK. This permit is similar to a visa.
Employment
If you are a national of any other EEA country or Switzerland, you will not need to apply for our permission in order to work here.
You and your family members can:
- accept offers of work
- work as an employee and/or in self-employment
- set up a business
- manage a company
- set up a local branch of a company
You can also do all these types of work if you are studying in the UK.
Your employer should not discriminate against you because of your nationality in terms of conditions of employment, pay or working conditions.

B)
EEA Family Permit (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... ly-permit/)
A non-EEA family member of an EEA national will need to obtain an EEA family permit before travelling to the UK if they are:
- a 'visa national' (see 'More information' below); or
- coming to live with the EEA national in the UK permanently or on a long-term basis.

However, the non-EEA family member must be travelling to the UK:
with the EEA national; or
to join the EEA national here.

C)
Residence documents for non-EEA family members of EEA nationals (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... ts-family/)
If you are the non-European family member of an EEA or Swiss national, and you have come to the UK with them, you can apply for a residence card. This is a document which confirms your right of residence under European law.
Do you need to apply?
You do not need to obtain documents confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a family member of an EEA national.
However, you may be inconvenienced if you do not obtain this confirmation, as:
- you may have difficulty proving that you are lawfully resident in the UK;
- if you leave the UK, you will usually need to obtain an EEA family permit before returning here, in order to guarantee readmission as the family member of a qualified EEA national; and
- you may find it difficult to obtain or change employment.


My Deduction
Based on points A, B and C above, it seems that My Wife and her husband (me) (non-EEA family member), both can come to UK by traveling together based on EEA-Family permit, find their residence, start the job and then, EEA national's husband can apply for residence card.

Now I need to confirm me dudction if it is really legally possible or not. ---- Need assistance on that.

I have been calling for two days here but waiting on hold and did not get through yet..
European enquiries contact centre
(http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/about ... tem=217535)
+44 8450105200 -- Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday (excluding public holidays) 09:00 to 16:45, Friday 09:00 to 16:30 (excluding public holidays).

[fundiver199]

The main challenge in your case is, that your right to work in UK is dependent on your wife being a ”self supporting person”. And your wifes status as a “self supporting person” is dependent solely on the income, which you will receive, if you are allowed to work in UK.

This is a circular dependency, so it might be up to the goodwill of the UK authorities, if they will let you stay and work there or not, as this situation has not really been clearly described and taken into account in the free movement directive. And therefore you might also want to get some sort of advanced indication from british authorities before actually moving there.

[habibcs]

I had a conversation here : +44 8450105200
The lady said, a non-eea-family member can work in UK with EEA Family permit.
And then later I will have the option to apply for residence card in UK alongwith my EEA national spouse.

What's the purpose and relevant documents I need to attach with EEA Family permit application: could be found out by the UK Embassy in Denmark.

Hope this will be helpful for others too.
If I get any other important info, I will paste here.

Thanks!

[Janeiuk]

Hi Habibcs,
The route you are planning on going is possibe - my boyfriend and i have just done it:). i am danish, he is South African and we have been living together outside of denmark for the last 3 years. We also prefered to move to the uk together instead of me going first, so we applied for a eea family permit from outside of the uk and my boyfriend was granted a 6 month eea permit which allows him to work etc. once we are in the uk and have started working, we can then apply for a 5 year eea residence permit for him.

The application was quite a process - quite similar to the one for familiesammenføring, also because we are not married. Proof we included in our application was:

- proof of cohabitation for the last two years (tenancy agreement, mortgage, utility bills to same address etc)
- proof of relationsship ( letters from friends and family, pictures, proof of travels together)
- proof of funds ( bank statements, recent payslips or other income, savings etc)
- proof of eea member's intended employment in the uk (employment letter, cv etc)

I am not sure if you would also be required to include proof of your relationsship sine you are married? but what we were told was to include everything we thought was relevant because if the immigration board think something is missing, they will not ask you for the extra documentation but rather turn down your application.

My boyfriends eea permit went through in less than 2 weeks and we are now getting ready to move to England together:).

[iminds]

Hi Habibcs,
The route you are planning on going is possibe - my boyfriend and i have just done it:). i am danish, he is South African and we have been living together outside of denmark for the last 3 years. We also prefered to move to the uk together instead of me going first, so we applied for a eea family permit from outside of the uk and my boyfriend was granted a 6 month eea permit which allows him to work etc. once we are in the uk and have started working, we can then apply for a 5 year eea residence permit for him.

The application was quite a process - quite similar to the one for familiesammenføring, also because we are not married. Proof we included in our application was:

- proof of cohabitation for the last two years (tenancy agreement, mortgage, utility bills to same address etc)
- proof of relationsship ( letters from friends and family, pictures, proof of travels together)
- proof of funds ( bank statements, recent payslips or other income, savings etc)
- proof of eea member's intended employment in the uk (employment letter, cv etc)

I am not sure if you would also be required to include proof of your relationsship sine you are married? but what we were told was to include everything we thought was relevant because if the immigration board think something is missing, they will not ask you for the extra documentation but rather turn down your application.

My boyfriends eea permit went through in less than 2 weeks and we are now getting ready to move to England together:).

Janieuk, did you submit the application for your boyfriend in South Africa? Did you supply a UK address where you will be staying on the application form? I want to know if the authorities in UK will want to have proof of residence before issuing such a visa for non EEA nationals.

[fundiver199]

If the visa application is to be treated under EU-law, the non-EU national must either join or accompany the EU-citizen. So the EU-citizen must either live in the UK (have an adresss) or travel together with the non-EU national.

Otherwise the visa application will be treated as a completely normal application and evaluated on basis of the percieved risk of immigration etc.

[habibcs]

(After long time) Just adding here to let others know - I got EEA family permit easily within 2 weeks based on bank statement, hotel stay, marriage certificate, tenancy agreement - plus we need to fly and live together. After reaching there I also worked legally & got NI number.