I’m looking to stick one up to the British government by keeping my wife here through the ‘Surinder Singh’ method.

Has anyone got any advice for getting temp work in Europe for three months? Where to look? Names of people to contact etc?

The Surinder Singh immigration route: how does it work?

To help you unpick this, the reference to TFEU is to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and concerns the fundamental right of free movement around the EU by citizens of the EU. The references to Directive 2004/38/EC can be traced in the text of the Directive here. Article 7 is entitled “Right of residence for more than three months” and confers a right of residence on EU citizens who are exercising their Treaty rights to work, be self employed, self sufficient or study. Article 16 concerns the right of permanent residence, acquired after 5 years of lawful residence.

The following important points emerge:

Does this mean that I don’t even have to work? Could we just go an hole ourselves up in a Lisbon flat, sun ourselves for three months?

I believe the word of importance is residence. When I lived and worked in Italy there were a lot of forms that were required for me to actually register as a resident.

I would expect most of the EU states are similar. You will need a permanent address (not a hotel) and then you register for the appropriate identity cards and tax numbers.

Also from a quick look at the link you may need to prove that you have moved your permanent residence to Lisbon.

As you suggested Lisbon I guess your wife is from an ex-Portuguese colony. Which one if you don’t mind me asking?

May I suggest a really stupid idea of consulting a migration specialist? Any reason for not going the traditional visa route other than a desire to stick it to the man?

Excuse my ignorance and this may sound like a stupid question but:
If she is currently unable to get residency in the uk (an European country), why would she get residence in an other European country (be it just for three months or whatever)?

Hey Mike, I’m job hunting at the moment. Realistically it will be 3 months before I’m in a job that covers the requirements – then another 6 months before I can apply for the standard visa.

Just weighing my options, I will speak to a specialist……but you know….this forum is brilliant.

Iolo it is easier for a non British EEA citizen to bring their kon eea family here due to EU rules than it is for me. The Surrinder Singh method exploits this.

Why can you not apply for the spousal visa for her?

Two years then the indefinite leave to remain. Followed by citizenship if you desire.

We have had to jump through the hoops., not enjoyable but easy to do.

Why can you not apply for the spousal visa for her?

18600 quid income needed.

She’s just graduated, she has a temp job for the 3 months before he visa expires which will mean we can technically cover the requirements based on what we have previously earned over the past year. It’s just that I’m worried they will tell us to **** off if they see “temporary” stamped on her contract. Hopefully her boss will write her a letter saying that they will extend her contract if she gets the marriage visa as they can’t be bothered sponsoring her on a tier 2.

Anyway, 47 percent of the people in this country supposedly don’t earn enough to cover the marriage visa. Nice. The reason they do this is because they don’t want spouses to cost the tax payer money, which they don’t as they don’t have recourse to public money. Meanwhile I have to pay for chavs to chuck out 7 babies or help posh people by helping to fund their child benefits.

Wooooo. This is hanging over my head like the grim reaper. Merry Christmas.

I’ll just remind you about seasonal work in ski resorts. For yourself and your good lady once she has signed up for a university course in the country of choice which will allow her to get the papers which will allow her to work during her studies. University courses in France are a couple of hundred euros; the only problem is your timing, signing up on courses mid year isn’t easy but sometimes possible.

Cheers Eduaktor. Yeah studying in Europe is still an option, the deadlines for masters courses are a way away yet so that is definitely one of the many options I’m thinking about…..to the point that all of the options are giving me a serious headache.

I need booze. France would be good mind.

Good luck, I have a mate who’s in a similar predicament (Malaysian partner who is actually a qualified but not practicing lawyer, now has a child, ‘crap’ degree with no job to come to) so can appreciate the situation you’re in.

Ironically it’s easier for them to get into Australia than here.

Ironically it’s easier for them to get into Australia than here.

Just don’t try it by boat!

Nothing constructive to add but hope you get it sorted. Boils my p*ss when I read about this sort of thing. Funny how just about everything in this world is free to move across borders except people.

Just don’t try it by boat!

Not in Australian waters

friend of mine didn’t travel outside the UK until he gained full residency
Never said why, but thought i share that bit of information with you

I have looked at getting my wife full citizenship (she is on a Hong Kong BNO passport) in case I ever decide to move back to the UK full time but the hoops you have to jump through look tough.
Good luck with your application but as mentioned above, better to maybe talk to a specialist first.

Things are looking up, we looked at her grades today and worked out that it would have been very hard for her not to end up with a first in her degree. She’s also just found out that she won an award for the best first year essay (they took 3 years to tell her that).

I reckon she’s come near to the top of her class in terms of grades, she carried out what I thought was a very competent econometrics analysis for her thesis (way better than my bioinformatics thesis, I found myself getting jealous of her work) and she took a year out in industry.

She’s quite under confident (where as I’m a headstrong dick sometimes) but after I pointed all this out and told her how good this was she started having a look at a masters/phd scholarship. Personally, I think if anyone can do it, it’s her….. so fingers crossed – we have lots of options – given a bit of luck and hard work I think we/she can scrape through this.

Her parents are broke after putting her through university, to the point they’re probably going to lose their house….so if she’s going to stay on a student visa it can only be through a scholarship. Although I could just about scrape the money together to pay for her tuition fees if I really…really had to by working silly hours in any old job and eating ramen noodles for 9 months. I’d do this because I’m very proud of her, it’s been a complete roller coaster of a ride for her dealing with parents who sent her here on the cusp of being able to afford it. She’s worked really really hard, supporting herself by working part time and never having any free time to herself because of this. I’ve become a more functioning member of society who works harder with a little more attention to detail in everything I do because of her influence.

Lots of ideas…..thanks for the support guys….I will keep you posted. It’s a constant stress, I think on me more than her as I do most of the worrying – I constantly strategize or think about things that can go wrong.