Readers ask for advice on visas and residency card issues.
People with Brexit residency cards (pictured) need to show them at the French border
Hayk_Shalunts / Shutterstock / Church of England, Diocese of Europe
The Connexion regularly receives queries from readers relating to issues with their visas and residency cards. Here we answer two of them.
Moving from Spain with an adult daughter
A British reader who has moved from Spain to the west of France says she has contacted the local prefecture but is having difficulty establishing how to apply for a residency card.
She understands she does not need a visa to move, having been a legal resident of a EU country prior to Brexit.
It is important to note that while campaigners had hoped that ‘onward’ free movement rights of Britons living in the EU before Brexit would be guaranteed in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, this was ultimately not the case.
The agreement guarantees only residency rights in the country where the British person was living before 2021, not the right to move freely elsewhere in the EU, which Britons had when they were EU citizens.
This means that a British person living in Spain should usually apply via the French consulate in Spain for a visa to move to France, under a category appropriate to their situation.
For example, a salarié visa if they have a job offer and work permit in France, or visiteur if they are self-sufficient from pension and investment income.
There are two main exceptions to this.
If you have lived in another EU country for more than five years and obtained from that country an EU long-term resident’s card – it should have this specific name – you may move without a visa, but should apply for a residency card within three months under the usual categories.
Also, if you have lived in another country for at least 18 months and have a residency card with EU blue card status – for certain highly qualified workers – you can apply for an equivalent card in France within a month of moving and do not need a visa to do so.
A British-Australian daughter
A couple of mixed French and British/Australian nationality also wrote to us, asking if it is possible for the Briton’s 20-year-old daughter, who has health concerns, to come to live with them in France.
She is also British and Australian.
This is possible in the case of a Briton who has a Brexit Withdrawal Agreement card, as holders of these cards have maintained similar ‘family member’ rules to EU citizens, providing that the relationship existed before 2021.
In this case, a child under 21, or a child of any age dependent on the cardholder, can come to France.
They should apply for a WA card within three months.
In other cases, we have not been able to identify a specific route for an adult to join their foreign parents in France as a result of this relationship. This was confirmed by the La Cimade association for foreigners in France.
Accordingly, the British person’s daughter would typically have to apply for a visa under the usual categories. There is a visa for bloodline children of French people, but that is not the case here.