.

Interesting poll, in my case the answer to Q2 is both yes and no.

My wife has applied for two visit visas and has been issued it free once and made to pay once. Both times she supplied the complete set of supporting docs that a spouse of a non EU citizen would be required to. Each time our reason for travel was important and dates not flexible hence we seeked to cover all the bases by supplying the docs to ensure a visa was issued in time for our travel date.

Being asked for payment at the second application was annoying to say the least, it was at the time of last year's floods and senior consular staff were not present to be able to challenge it.

I decided to seek clarification for the next time from SOLVIT, an extract of their reply is below and which does seem to admit that there are difficulties encountered with EU Consulates.

Under EU legislation your Thai spouse is indeed required to hold an entry visa (v. article 5 (2), first paragraph of Directive (EC) N.º 2004/38 OF 29 April 2004 and Annex I of Regulation (EC) n.º 539/2001 of 15 March 2001). However, your assumption that she can get her entry visa free of charge is correct. This rule is set forth in article 5 (2), second paragraph of Directive (EC) N.º 2004/38 which reads as follows: “Member States shall grant such persons [family members who are not EU nationals of a Member State] every facility to obtain the necessary visas. Such visas shall be issued free of charge as soon as possible and on the basis of an accelerated procedure”. Also, in order to apply for the entry visa, she should not be required to file insurance evidence nor financial statements but rather a marriage certificate to prove that she is married to you.

Accordingly, we suggest that you revert to the Consulate with this info and insist on the issuance of the visa free of charge and without unjustified documentation requirements. However, please be prepared to the fact that, unfortunately, sometimes consulates can be difficult. In case they insist, you may want to file a complaint with SOLVIT, which is an EU network aiming to solve amicably cases of bad application of EU law by national administrations

I would like to be able to poll the staff of the various BKK EU Consulates and their contractors to see if they know the rules.

Yarco

maybe read this and you will find that the staff at some Embassies are unaware of the Directive and also are issuing false application forms

Question 1 I answered no as at the time I was not aware, until very recently

Question 2 - she applied for a visa to Switzerland and I was as stated above unaware of the Directive

Question 3 - can only answer No as she will apply in the next few weeks

I would like to be able to poll the staff of the various BKK EU Consulates and their contractors to see if they know the rules.

That wouldn't be difficult. One could do it by email.

Good poll Goatfarmer

If you take a look at the TLS website (for the French Embassy), go under documents it asks for a few details and gives you a list of documents required to apply for this kind of Visa, however it does ask for a few translations which would eventually cost you money, but at least someone knows about this.