Hi,

I'm trying to find out if my wife can enter the EU/UK under the provisions of 2004/38 and am particularly interested in hearing from anyody who has done this with the UK or Poland.

Our situation:
I am British, she is Ukrainian. We met in Poland last year and married in Ukraine a few weeks ago. But, we did not register as a resident nor for tax in Poland - effectively we were just visitors but I was exercising treaty rights (but before our marriage).

What we want:
Ideally to travel to and live in the UK. But we understand we might have to live in another EU member state for a few months first, such as Poland (who are being awkward about the visa rights too).

In the meantime, we're trying to get her entry into Poland (or really any EU state) under EC 2004/38 - has anybody managed this? At the minute they are demanding that I travel first to Poland and obtain a residence permit before they will give her a visa - I understand this is incorrect and we're preparing to argue it out with them. Still, we'd prefer to go direct to the UK but without shelling out 600quid and jumping through the hoops for the spouse visa which appears to infringe our rights under this directive.

Can we get directly to the UK under this directive without first exercising treaty rights?

many thanks

toad