?Does A Eea Family Permit Expire If You Stop Ordinarily Living In Europe Or Would Still Be Valid For The Duration ?

[ayalgueru]

Does a EEA Family Permit expire if you stop ordinarily living in Europe or would still be valid for the duration ??

I am a London based non UK European Union citizen (Spain). My thai wife lives with me here in London and has also worked here for a number of years under her EEA Family permit. Her 5 year family permit expires late 2012.?

I have been offered and accepted a job in Hong Kong, my and my wife's HK work/residence permit is currently being processed by my employers consultants and I should be moving there early June , now , while very committed and looking forward to the HK opportunity I am not really sure whether it will work out for us, not sure if my Thai wife would like it there and I myself never lived outside Europe so although I love Asia , I am not sure whether we will like it or not and I am a believer that ,in life, if it all possible, it is always good to have a B plan so my questions are ... ?

If we both go to HK (or anywhere else outside the European Union to that effect), and get the HK work permit stamped in our passports, and say in a couple months later we hate it there in HK and we decide to get back to Britain,?

- would her EEA Family permit (remember it expires late in 2012 ) still be valid ? or would we need to go through the painful process of applying for a new one.?

- How would the having lived in HK for a few months situation affect her potential application for a indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2013, do the 5 years of residence need to start all over again ??

Apologies if there is somewhere else on the forum this issue has already being discussed, I have looked for it and maybe I am just silly but I was unable to find anything relevant.?

?Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.?

[7by7]

Firstly, as she is currently in the UK under the EEA rules she does not apply for ILR, she applies for Permanent Residence. This may seem a small point, but ILR is expensive, PR under the EEA rules is free!

To qualify for PR she must have maintained continuity of residence in the UK for 5 years. This continuity will be broken if she spends more than 6 months out of any 12 outside the UK and she will have to start the 5 years qualifying period again when or if she returns.

Whether having a residence permit for Hong Kong would effect her status in the UK, I'm afraid I don't know. I suspect that it does. Until she has PR her right to live in the UK is totally dependent upon you exercising an economic treaty right to live in the UK, e.g. working. If you are no longer exercising that right then she and you have no right to remain in or return to the UK; except for holidays, of course.

So, If she spends more than 6 months in one year out of the UK then she will need a new family permit, or some other type of entry clearance, in order to return. Even if that time was spent in another EEA state.

As moving to Hong Kong means that you will no longer be exercising an economic treaty right in the UK she may need one anyway, no matter how long you spend there.

That's my understanding, anyway. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will confirm or correct.

I don't understand why you describe obtaining an EEA family permit as a " painful process." Compared to a UK settlement visa one is extremely easy to obtain and, unlike an expensive UK visa, free.

[ayalgueru]

Thanks for your detailed answer appreciated !

Yes 6 months would be plenty of time to find out whether we would like to stay there or not the crux is whether once we leave with the HK stamp even if it is for a week the EEA family permit would no longer be valid.

No disrespect intended on my comment about the EEA family permit process being a pain ... The uk settlement visa process may be even more painful surely but that does not mean 6 months for the EEA family permit is not indeed painful ... Even worse for a friend of ours whose passport was lost by the home office and they then make up that they have sent it back to her ! She had to take them to court (her thai passport had an italian visa wich she did not want to lose) ... The possibility of that kind of thing happening to us should we need to re-apply for the family permit does indeed scare me ...

[ThaiVisaExpress]

The family permit route is very straight forward compared to waiting months for a settlement visa.