transit visa for france

[beaufoy]

I am English and me and my Thai Wife are emigrating from Thailand to Ireland .If my understanding of eu law is correct said emigration to Ireland should be quite straight forward, hence I have already purchased the plane tickets. Said journey gives us a 2 day stop over in paris, and I thought the visa arrangements for france would be straight forward. On Tuesday I had to fly from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to submit papers to the Irish Embassy, so i thought I should visit the french Embassy and was surprised to be told the french visa was/is very difficult to obtain. I also tried the french visa agent in bangkok who told me to contact agents by phone. After contacting visa agents by phone we were told the french 2 day visa for my wife was/is difficult but not impossible. We would be expected to jump certain hurdles including a 6000 baht payment to the agent. I declined the invitation to pay the agent 6000 baht, and instead started reading eu visa law. Said law/directives agreed with my initial thoughts ie Under EU directive 2004/38 provided my Thai wife is accompanied by a husband (Me) who is an EU citizen then in theory she is entitled to visa free travel to all (including france) eu countries....can anyone enlighten me further?

[Donutz]

The type of visa you describe is a type C (short stay) visa. The type B transit visa was scrapped some years ago. And type A (transit visa for immediate transit at the airport without leaving the international side of the airport) does not apply to you (or Thais at all). 

 

But yes you are correct. She is the spouse of an EU/EEA citizen and you are traveling to an other EU country so directive 2004/38 applies here. See the Schengen sticky topic. 

 

Also see:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/non-eu-family/index_en.htm

 

But it's true that some embassies  (especially Spain!!) Are not giving the free, swift, minimal paperwork , exhilarated VIP like treatment. The French ask too many documents such as a hotel booking and flight reservation but technically they cannot ask for this. Complying is usually the easiest if you can and if it doesn't cost you money. So see the French embassy website (it may redirect to the optional service provider TLS which technically you can totally bypass) and follow the instructions there for a 'short stay visa for an family member of an Eu/EEA national'.

 

When it's all done you might wish to share your experience with EU home affairs so that they may take it up in future legislation etc:

JUST-CITIZENSHIP {at} ec.europa.eu