Hi,
I am an Irish Citizen and my company (an International Finance company) is transferring me from London to Madrid in January 2012. My wife is Colombian and we have been living together in London for 18 months. We have only recently married and she has a student visa for the UK which expires in less than 120 days.

It is very difficult to find information as this is a bit of a unique case. The options that are available to us are:

1.  Both of us to move in January, and she has a full rights as a non-eu spouse
2.  Her to study and once in Spain apply for a Family Reunification Visa (or someother visa which allows her to stay longer than her course, and work)
3.  Me to move to Spain, and her to apply for a Reunification Visa from outside Spain

Option 1
This seems to be the most sensible option, however twe cannot speak to the Spanish embassy (in London) and it is unclear what kind of visa we could get and how we go about getting it. We don?t mind if my wife cannot work for an extended period of time so long as she is allowed into the country and ideally allowed to Study (although separate from a student visa, which is option 2)
Does anyone know the process or knows a good lawyer who can help?

Option 2
Student Visa, however the problem is that she has less than 120 days left on her visa, and therefore she has to apply in Colombia (this is a rule with Spanish embassy in London). The only workaround for this is if we apply for the EU Family Certificate, which will allow her to work in the UK for 5-years. The issue with this is that it can take up to 4 months, and the home office (uk) could cause problems if they thought you were using the process without an intention to stay for a prolonged period of time.

Option 3
Emotionally, this is the most difficult. The only feedback we have gotten from the embassy following numerous letters was that ?you cannot get a reunification visa unless your husband is already working there?. There are two issues here, (i) could I get my NIE number, and my contract date changed to next week and pretend that I am already working there (or could this be dangerous), or (ii) in the UK they have a temporary visa that allows you to enter for a period of 6 months and get the apply for the visa while in Spain.

Apologies for the long post, however we are desperately in need of information and advice. We are more than happy to engage with a lawyer who we believe actually has answers to these issues.

Many thanks
D

Irish Citizen many want to have a chat with them http://ireland.embassyhomepage.com/ thay sould help you out faster , you hold any irish passport , need get papper work done there as she still non-eu spouse , she no right and could be shipped off home ...

need to get papper work that you hooked up and go to he embassy aswell ...

hope you got letter from you home church in ireland say you free .. the guys in london irish embassy will ask for it and she need one from her home church in Colombian . irish law still has the church on it side ...

will ask one the irish guy in the uk office what here had to do with his paper work ...

thanks for the info, although Irish embassy said they cant help as were moving to Spain. But I was thinking we could get our marriage registered or something?

Would be interested to see what you colleague did.

Thanks

Declan

Hi,
I am an Irish Citizen and my company (an International Finance company) is transferring me from London to Madrid in January 2012. My wife is Colombian and we have been living together in London for 18 months. We have only recently married and she has a student visa for the UK which expires in less than 120 days.

It is very difficult to find information as this is a bit of a unique case. The options that are available to us are:

1.  Both of us to move in January, and she has a full rights as a non-eu spouse
2.  Her to study and once in Spain apply for a Family Reunification Visa (or someother visa which allows her to stay longer than her course, and work)
3.  Me to move to Spain, and her to apply for a Reunification Visa from outside Spain

Option 1
This seems to be the most sensible option, however twe cannot speak to the Spanish embassy (in London) and it is unclear what kind of visa we could get and how we go about getting it. We don?t mind if my wife cannot work for an extended period of time so long as she is allowed into the country and ideally allowed to Study (although separate from a student visa, which is option 2)
Does anyone know the process or knows a good lawyer who can help?

she might try for a tourist visa. once in spain she can apply for the eu family member residence permit. you should bring all documents need for this permit when you enter spain.

Option 2
Student Visa, however the problem is that she has less than 120 days left on her visa, and therefore she has to apply in Colombia (this is a rule with Spanish embassy in London). The only workaround for this is if we apply for the EU Family Certificate, which will allow her to work in the UK for 5-years. The issue with this is that it can take up to 4 months, and the home office (uk) could cause problems if they thought you were using the process without an intention to stay for a prolonged period of time.

this is the best since she would not need a visa to enter spain as eu family member once she has the uk resident permit, do you really have to inform the uk authorities that your company is sending you to spain?

Option 3
Emotionally, this is the most difficult. The only feedback we have gotten from the embassy following numerous letters was that ?you cannot get a reunification visa unless your husband is already working there?. There are two issues here, (i) could I get my NIE number, and my contract date changed to next week and pretend that I am already working there (or could this be dangerous),

and what about your domicile in spain? how do you prove you are living already in spain? the rent contract?

or (ii) in the UK they have a temporary visa that allows you to enter for a period of 6 months and get the apply for the visa while in Spain.

what do you mean? tourist visa to enter spain?

Thank you so much for your information. We looked into a number of your suggestions, however we decided that my wife go to Colombia to apply for a student visa from there and they we will sort out everything else when she gets there. At least in the meantime she can do the course she wants and I can support her.

Thanks

Declan