Has anyone ever applied for this family permit to visit the UK? I am a non-EU national married to a Swiss. We intend to visit the UK this year and the UK Border website is not entirely clear as to the requirements. They said that I need to obtain this EEA Family Permit which should be free of charge but when I did the application online- I need to pay a fee of EUR 100. There was no call center helpline (at least I couldn't find any on their website) where I could raise my query.

Does anyone here have an experience with this EEA family permit?

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eu...family-permit/

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/po.../ecg/eun/eun4/

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...-checklist.pdf

You might want to ask World Bridge Services, Geneva for information.

for an e-mail enquiry:

https://www.visainfoservices.com/pag...erService_page

and for call centre:

https://www.visainfoservices.com/pag...allCentre_page

Ok, thanks! Very helpful.

Dear,

I was wondering if you found any solution to your problem?

Best regards,
Tom

I recently also tried to find out more about the EEA Family Permit. There is an EU Directive which should allow visa free travel or residence for the non EU spouse of a UK citizen who has been living in an EU state. This also includes Switzerland albeit under a different agreement. However, the UK Border Agency do not abide by this law. Until last year, Ireland did not either but were forced to do so by the EU courts. Presently there are court cases ongoing to try and make the UK follow this EU Directive but it could take years.

If you are visiting the UK you have no choice but to make the 20 page application for a visitor visa (not EEA Family Permit) and pay a huge fee. For example a 2 year visa costs 355 Euros. You then must go in person and submit your application to Geneva or Zurich. Any photos you bring as part of your application will be rejected and everyone is made to pay for new ones taken by Worldbridge.

If, on the other hand you are going to the UK to live then you can apply for the EEA Family Permit. Strangly they only allow this immigration. In this case you can find the only application by selecting "other" in the choice of visas.

Contacting Wordbridge about this issues is hopeless. They simply quote you the text on the UK Border Agency Website. If you ask the UK embassy, they won't reply as they don't handle visas.

Sorry about the gramatical mistakes in the above post but the rules in this forum do not allow me to make a correction until I've passed some initiation phase.

Why is this thread not in the visa section? Surely it's very relevant to anyone wishing to visit the UK who lives in Switzerland?

(my bolding)
This is the point. The EU directive does only apply to EU citizens who are not citizens of the EU country they're travelling to, or intend to live in. Each country can do pretty much as it pleases with regard to its own citizens.

Which is why in the UK, if you're non-EU and married to a UK citizen, the UK can set its own rules as to the conditions for your entry into the country, your conditions of residence, or on whether or not you get a work permit.

If you're married to someone who is not a UK citizen (such as a German, or a Dane, or a Greek), then the UK has to abide by EU law. And, to its credit, does.

We are taking about family members of UK citizens

DIRECTIVE 2004/
38/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 29 April 2004

on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members

to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States

In other words the UK implements the reside part but not the move part of the directive.

If I wish to go live in the UK, with my husband, I can do so using an EEA Family permit. No fee and simple application.

If I wish to visit the UK for a weekend, I need a visa, long application and pay a big fee.

Why should residence be easy but visiting so difficult? That, to me, makes no sense and that is why this is being presented to the EU courts this month.

Again, there is a fundamental misunderstanding on your part about what European law can regulate, and about what it can.

The directive tells EU member states how they have to treat citizens of other (!) EU member states, and their families, when it comes to immigration, right to work, visa requiremets and so on. It cannot tell EU member states what requirements to pose for their own citizens, and their families.

As a result, the UK has rather stringent requirements for spouses and children of UK citizens who are not UK citizens themselves, to come to live and/or work in the UK (or even to visit). Spouses and children of citizens of another EU member state (ie not the UK) can avail themselves of the rights that Directive 2004/38 confers to them.

Don't like it? Have your spouse call his MP and ask for a change in UK law. But don't hold your breath.

Stringent requirements only to vist. To live and work they need only an EEA Family Permit. Simple, no fee application. This has been confirmed by correspondance directly with the UK Visa people.

If there was not this annomoly, it wouldn't be going to court.