Hi

I am a UK citizen living and working in Germany for several years. During this time I have married, my wife is from Ukraine, and we have 2 young children (both have their own UK passports). Since my wife is not from an EU country we have on a few occasions applied successfully for essentially tourist visas, via the consulate in Dusseldorf, for trips to visit UK family and friends.

I have now been offered new employment in the UK, with a start date of mid-June. I am unsure what procedures I should follow to allow my wife to be able to live and work in the UK, where I should initiate those (in Germany, or in the UK?), and in particular how long such procedures might be expected to take (the employment offer is time limited).

Any comments and advice very very welcome!!!

Kevin

 

Hi

Thanks for the answer.

If I understand correctly reading here and other places the advantage over applying under UK law is that my wife would be able to apply for a UK passport sooner, you also indicate that she may get ILR straight away (we are married 4 1/2 years with 2 kids)? As far as I know the disadvantage is time (might take a bit longer, any guess on how much longer?) and cost (which is not an issue). Would that be a fair assessment?

Are there other issues that I should consider? For example we would like to invite her family (mum & dad) to visit us sometime. In Germany that was Ok, the procedure is pretty straightforward and handled efficiently. Are there any implications for tarvel within the other countries of the EU, will she soon need a visa to visit, say, Spain or France or ...? (her German residence permit will expire in around 9 months, she has been able to travel in all Shengen countries just with that for the last few years). Anything else I have not thought of, health care issues, rules about jobs she can take, citizenship/language tests?

Kevin