bags and documents for expats returning

[AppleButter]

I hope it doesn’t come to pass, but as I live in Europe and my partner and kids are from one European country, and I am british. If I needed to temporarily evacuate back home, to my family, with Dp and DCs, would this even be possible, or would PrettyP stop us from coming in? (We Own property in uk, I am british but DP and DC are not. DC could apply for citizenship through me )
Also would need to get emergency documents together and have bank accounts to hand.
Scary times. I may just be very scared due to current situations, and while I have enough pasta, I realise I am not administrativly prepped, which may be a whole other world. And my passport is due to expire this year so big problems. But I know the whole world has bigger problems. 😟

I can't answer your questions, but would say it might be worth making enquiries of the passport office, so you can check where you stand regarding various situations with your passport. Any proof of financial institutions is well having to hand, is any id documentation. I don't know what your finances are, but if you've got an account in this country it might be worth putting some of your savings in there, so you'd have money to live on initially. Might be worth making a list of things you'd really want to bring if you wanted to move quickly - obviously the usual clothes, toiletries but some personal things like photos, a special gift, child's favourite toy etc.

Hope someone else on 'preppers' can help more. If not, might be worth posting on 'chat' as someone might pick up there.

Hope you're ok OP and stay safe.

Do your children qualify for British passport/dual nationality?

Sorry, I disappeared, Very stressful yesterday and I had to
get offline and stop reading the news. I need to apply for UK Visas for my family and passports for the kids, which theybare entitled to, but also keep bags packed,?the very thought of which doesnt bring comfort, but fear. Very distressing war scenes on the news , our stress (I am in western Europe) is definitely not as much. I definitely refuse to read anything about a nuclear fallout because there is so little we could do.

I would immediately apply for British passports for your children. Please don’t delay on this. You are entitled to hold passports from 2 counties it’s just usually expensive having two and not usually necessary. However in the event of having to change country quickly it could be handy.

Yes I think you are right. Just so many things going on at the moment . . .

Just at the moment, it would be very hard for you to bring your DH and dcs with you.

I would get the dcs BRITISH passport ASAP. But it would be more of struggle for your DH.
Was he living in the U.K. when brexit happened? Could he get settled or pre settled status (might be a bit late - you’ll have to check)?

Otherwise, I’ll start putting money aside for the cost of visa etc…
Also have a look at the government website on immigration. You might be able to put one the some of the documents ahead if time. You need to be ready for it to take AGES.

From the top of my head, you might need to prove that you are really married and a couple, which can include photos of your wedding, photos as a family etc….

Good to know, I haven’t printed pictures in years and don't even know if we have pictures of all of us together! Need to start taking these and having them printed. Would never have thought of that. We have notarised certificates, documents etc but not translated into english!!
Just seeing the poor Ukrainians having to flee, that could be anyone and all the administrative hurdles that fleeing people have. The European response (refraining from visa requirements) has been good though.

Obviously things are very different at the moment but I found it very difficult to bring my dh to the uk, almost bloody impossible in fact.

Despite us having been married for 13 years at the time and having two British born dc with passports.

Again this was when there wasn't a war.

The British person has to live and work in the UK for six months and have a wage of £16000 a year in a permanent job with no overtime or bonuses counting towards the £16000.

I’m in a similar position but the other way around (living in britain, dcs with dual citizenship but dh would have to fit in the visa requirement for my EU country )

It’s very personal but following brexit, I found that knowing what my country of origin requires made me feel more relaxed about the whole thing..

Have you not registered your marriage with the British consulate?

I think the minimum wage requirement is £18k now…

For our visa we needed evidence like photos like @TravellingFrom says of things like us at weddings where there had to be 'people from different generations'. I suppose to show they aren't faked.

Also emails between us about bollocks like paying the gas bill in 2009 and taking the dc's to the dentist in 2005.

Also letters from our family saying how close they were to dh and how he was a part of our family. We got 'our' MP from the place we had lived in the UK involved in the end.

@TravellingFrom

I think the minimum wage requirement is £18k now…

Yes I wouldn't be surprised. We've been back five years now. Also there is an extra amount per child. And the visa itself is thousands too.

It took us eighteen months but obviously the rules may be relaxed because of the war.

Here is some information on the Surinder Singh loophole which will close on March 29th.

www.freemovement.org.uk/surinder-singh-immigration-route/

www.gov.uk/family-permit

This is new to me to that visas cost thousands. I had no idea!
I thought perhaps £200, but being in the EU we never had to apply for one.
Thanks everyone. Few admin options except applying quickly for a passport.
And little clemency expected from the UK if we had to flee to calais, with DC and DP without a british passport.

I think we paid about £3000 eventually, but not all at once.

Here is the 'what visa do I need' tool.

www.gov.uk/visa-fees

I don’t want to be harsh @AppleButter, but I would not expect any clemency from the current government.

If they have the ‘right’ passport they might come in for a few months on a tourist visa (with a return ticket bought!).
I wouldn’t expect them to make things easier :(:(

No, me neither. There has been a British man with his Ukrainian wife and children in Calais on BBC Breakfast for a few days now and he can't come here with his family.

No, fully agree, no clemency or kindness from the government to be expected. I will do the passport applications soon. Hopefully we don’t have to flee western europe, that would be bad. It feels really shite to now be a non-EU citizen, and have fewer automatic rights in europe.

I am fully aware and aghast at the ghastly people in charge.

Are you married AppleButter ? I don’t know about regulations here now but years ago when we lived overseas our friends had a problem due to not being married. He had a job offer but the company couldn’t get a visa for the family until they married.