Westminster government to comply with European Directive 2004/38/EC

To uphold a basic human right that families are united.

I am an UK citizen married to a Russian citizen.

France has granted my wife the right of residency (a carte de sejour) this entitles her to visit most EU countries without the need for a visa. European Directive 2004/38/EC (https://eumovement.wordpress.com/directive-200438ec/ )

The UK government will not fully comply with this directive but It will allow entry to the UK to anyone who has an Estonian or German certificate of residency. One can only assume that the Westminster government considers that other EU countries are too liberal when it comes to issuing certificates of residency.. This is an insult to the integrity of other EU States, in our case France. They are suggesting that France issues such documents without careful examination. I can assure you that is not the case their enquiries are vigorous and searching.

My wife and I had intended visiting the UK earlier this year to visit friends and relatives but the UK Visa and Immigration Office refused her a visa on the basis that she does not have her own financial means to fund a visit.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that UK rules requiring visas for non-EU family members of EU citizens entering the UK are in breach of EU law and the matter has been referred to the High Court in London for final judgement. Procrastination by all the agencies involved affect many people who simply want to visit the UK. I implore you to support my petition to get the UK government to respect the Human rights of a family to be together.

We only want to visit, there's no way we'd intend settling in the UK.

How did we get in ?

We arrived in Calais and took our chances. Fortunately the two Border Agency employees at the sharp end were sensible people and agreed with us that the decision by the UK Border Agency to refuse her a visa was ludicrous and gave her a 6 month tourist visa. She enjoyed her visit and we will not be applying for another visa. If the UK government persists in breaking the law i.e. the EU Directive 2004/38 then if we ever decide to revisit the UK at some date in the future Catherine will do so on a French passport.

On 19th May 2015 Catherine and I caught the 0920 hrs Channel Tunnel train and to our disappointment no-one bothered to check her out of the UK. I suppose she'll now be included in the Westminster government's figures of Immigrants who remain illegally in the UK. They couldn't organise a party in a brewery.

Catherine's visa expires soon so we hope to get it extended by persuading the Border Agency to stamp her passport with a 6 month Visitors visa.