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| "Family members of nationals of EC/EFTA member states who originate from third countries are only able to invoke the right to family reunion according to the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons if they have already been permanently resident in an EU/EFTA country prior to their application. If this is not the case, the issue of a permit is governed by national law."
I am not qualified to reply authoritatively on Swiss law (I am Swiss, but qualified elsewhere). That said, I have a doctorate in European Union law. And as always, you should NOT rely on the English translation of a Swiss law or rule, however fluent the English seems to be. Always go to the official versions (and sometimes, rarely, you need to compare those. To see what I am talking about, here's an EU case on official mistranslation: http://bit.ly/195BRz
What the Home Office documentation on the Switzerland-EU treaties says is this: a Swiss person (me, for example) cannot by right bring my dependent sister-in-law to Britain to live. Neither can my wife, who is British and so could not claim EU rights unless she lives in another EU/EEA/Swiss country for six months. But if my British wife and I bring her to, say, France and lives there with her for six months, then she will qualify (under the "Surinder Singh" case's holding) as an EU person (albeit a third-country national).
So: this does not concern members of an immediate family: spouse (or, where applicable, civil partner), child or adopted child. It concerns ascendant and collateral relatives, dependants. And under EU law member states are required to consider "sympathetically" applications for migration (family "reunification") of such persons.
Hope that helps. | |
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Absolutely. Thanks very much for this information, much appreciated...