My Husbands Been Offered A Job In Germany

Has anyone else had anything similar pop up? The offer sounds totally tempting and this company head hunted him specifically. We're now at the stage of negotiating salary! Moving package, ect..

However I'm not sure what this means for my self. A bit about us: he's a UKC and I'm his US wife over here on a FLR(M) at the moment. I did apply before the law change so this early fall ill have to apply for my second waiting period of FLR(M).

I currently work full time at a job I hate, but they pay me a wonderful salary so I stay. I've looked and applied but I thin prospective employers see my right to work date ending in September and don't think to ask me.

I'm not opposed to the move at all. Husband has finally hit his groove in his career and I'm happy he's getting recognized.

Just glancing at the German pages, it seems that for him, residing and working will be easy. For me, to work, will be a bit more complicated. Maybe it's time to start a family and not worry about double incomes, but Munich see,s to be just as expensive as London.

And then I worry about adapting. Integrating here was easy enough but shaky at times when the homesickness struck. But Germany seems quite different. He speaks German, I speak none, he already knows work and industry friends there, ill have to start fresh again. Those types of issues are sticking out.

So I guess, can anyone share their relocation stories to another country while in the middle of your uk visa trip? Is this a good idea? Is it best to get ILR before you start changing it up?

However I'm not sure what this means for my self. A bit about us: he's a UKC and I'm his US wife over here on a FLR(M) at the moment. I did apply before the law change so this early fall ill have to apply for my second waiting period of FLR(M).

If you applied before the rules changed then why do you need to apply for a second period of FLR(M)?

Only people who applied after the rules changed have to apply for 2 periods of FLR(M).

If you got your visa before July 9th 2012, then your next visa will be ILR in the fall... and once you have ILR, then you can leave the UK for up to 2 years without it affecting your visa status.

Just glancing at the German pages, it seems that for him, residing and working will be easy. For me, to work, will be a bit more complicated. Maybe it's time to start a family and not worry about double incomes, but Munich see,s to be just as expensive as London.

Wouldn't you just be able to apply for a German equivalent of an EEA family visa, which would presumably give you automatic right to live and work in Germany because you are married to an EEA national?

Unless you're talking more about the language barrier than the legal right to work in Germany.

So I guess, can anyone share their relocation stories to another country while in the middle of your uk visa trip? Is this a good idea? Is it best to get ILR before you start changing it up?

Since you will qualify for ILR in August (28 days before your visa expires), I would try to stay here until you get it, and then you can move to Germany... but to keep your ILR status you would have to move back to the UK within 2 years of leaving.

However, if you leave before you get ILR, your FLR(M) will become invalid and if you move back to the UK, you will either have to start from scratch under the new visa rules which would mean 2 more FLR(M) visas and 5 years to ILR, or you could potentially move back under EEA rules using Surinder Singh (completely free visa path), but still it would be another 5 years to UK permanent residence.

Having said that, I see from your previous posts that you arrived in the UK in May 2011 on a fiance visa - in that case, you will be eligible for UK citizenship in May 2014... if you can, I would advise staying in the UK until then, so you can apply for citizenship - and then you will be able to legally live and work in any EU country in your own right... and you will never have to worry about UK or EU visas again - you could live in Germany for 10 years if you wanted and still be able to move back to the UK whenever you liked.

If you did leave the UK after getting ILR, but before citizenship, and you did move back within 2 years, you would still have to live in the UK for another 3 years in order to qualify for citizenship... so you could be looking at not being able to get a UK passport until at least 2017 or 2018, vs. May 2014.

Yes you are correct, I did arrive on a fiancé visa in May of 2011. I was granted my spousal September of 2011, and that ends this coming September. I was under the assumption I had to apply for another FLR this coming September.

But you bring up an excellent point. It does seem foolish to throw away the time and money already spent in the visa chain.

The German information I looked at did grant an easy residence permit to an EU citizen, however they had three tiers of nonEU work visas they were after, Post graduate, Highly specified and skilled, and contract obtained. And the German Language requirement was stressed.

I planned to do some more research tonight, but seeing how I was confused about the FLRM issue, maybe I need to look closer to home.

Ksand24: thank you for taking the time for the reply. Greatly appreciated. X

The German information I looked at did grant an easy residence permit to an EU citizen, however they had three tiers of nonEU work visas they were after, Post graduate, Highly specified and skilled, and contract obtained. And the German Language requirement was stressed.

Because you'd be moving to Germany with your EU citizen husband who is exercising his treaty rights, you can easily get a permit to live in Germany as his spouse. No need to qualify for a different visa in your own right.

Your other concerns seem valid--starting over with a new culture, new language, new friends, etc. But getting a visa is a non-issue.

Yes you are correct, I did arrive on a fiancé visa in May of 2011. I was granted my spousal September of 2011, and that ends this coming September. I was under the assumption I had to apply for another FLR this coming September.

No, I think you were probably just mixing up the old and new requirements.

As you got your fiance visa before July 2012, then your visa path is:

- Fiance visa
- FLR(M) valid for 24 months
- ILR after you have completed 2 years on FLR(M)
- Citizenship after 3 years in the UK (fiance visa time can count towards this)

But if you had got your fiance visa after July 2012, then your visa path would have been:

- Fiance visa
- FLR(M) for 30 months (2.5 years)
- Another FLR(M) for 30 months (2.5 years)
- ILR after you have completed 60 months (5 years) on the two FLR(M) visas.
- Citizenship after you have gained ILR - so after 5 years in the UK, because although it's only 3 years for citizenship, it now takes 5 years to get ILR first.

The German information I looked at did grant an easy residence permit to an EU citizen, however they had three tiers of nonEU work visas they were after, Post graduate, Highly specified and skilled, and contract obtained. And the German Language requirement was stressed.

As aimlesstraveler said, for moving to Germany, you are the non-EEA spouse of an EEA citizen... therefore you don't need to qualify for a work visa because you already have automatic right to live and work there as long as your husband is exercising his EEA treaty rights in Germany.

You just need to apply for the German version of the EEA family permit as confirmation of this right (which should be free of charge) and then I think that, like the UK EEA permit, you would just need to apply for a 5-year residence card once you are living there (also should be free of charge).

This also applies to any other EEA country you might wish to live in... if your husband gets a job in any of the 26 other EEA countries, simply being married to him gives you the right to live and work in that country with him.