16

I am from the Netherlands but have Spanish ID. My father lived in Spain for 25 years and has his own company/house, etc.

My Egyptian husband applied for a family visit to Spain. My father provided the invitation letter, the stay, and all the costs. We gave his bank statement (with enough money), we provided the stay, etc. Family visit. As a short stay. We applied just for one month with my father’s invitation.

All documents they required were there. But yet, they denied the visa with the reason “The purpose and conditions of the planned stay have not been justified”.

We really don’t understand this and I am searching for answers what they could possibly be missing from us. And is it worth to do the appealing ?

Andrew T.
  • 354
  • 4
  • 14
Shelley Van der bol
  • 161
  • 1
  • 3

1 Answers1

48

You apparently used the standard visa route, which can be quite difficult for people coming from comparatively poor countries with a high risk of overstay.

But your husband is not a “regular alien”. He has the privilege of being the spouse of an EU national, and that gives him a shortcut and additional rights in this situation.

You are an EU national, and as such you benefit from the EU “freedom of movement” rights which allows you to travel to and settle in any other EU country, and that extends to your close family members, and of course your husband.

What you need to do is not apply for a regular visit visa, but rather for a visa for a family member of an EU citizen.

It may be a bit confusing because the form is the same as for a regular visit visa, and there isn’t a specific category or box to check on the visa form, but you should:

  • make sure you correctly fill in questions 17 and 18 of the form
  • not answer questions 21, 22, 30, 31, 32 (the ones marked with an asterisk)
  • in question 23, state family visit but also add “family member of an EU citizen”
  • not provide any documentation about anyone hosting you, nor employment proof, nor bank statements, etc.
  • provide proof of your marriage
  • provide a copy of your EU ID
  • provide evidence that you will be travelling together (or that you will be in Spain and your husband is going to join you).

If at all possible, submit the application directly to the consulate/embassy (rather than via the local preprocessor). Make it clear it’s an application for a visa for an EU family member.

Applications for visas for EU family members are free (unless you go through a preprocessor), they must be decided within 15 days, and there are very limited reasons for rejection (basically if you didn’t prove the applicant is a family member of an EU citizen).

You will find all the details here (Spanish info for Egypt) and here (generic EU info, a lot of it is the same, but it does give a bit more information on some aspects).

jcaron
  • 99,044
  • 6
  • 191
  • 378