Question – Dearest editorial staff,
I married an Albanian citizen that some years ago was ordered expulsion. She actually is in Albania. I managed to obtain – after one year – a Home Office decree that allows my wife to come back to Italy.
Some weeks ago I went to Albania and I was sure I could take my wife back to Italy with me. The Italian embassy in Albania won’t issue her a visa because she cannot enter Schengen area since the expulsion was ordered in Greece some years ago. What can we do?
My wife could be issued a limited visa that allows her to come to Italy but not to other EU countries. But the embassy says that this solution is impossible. I have a pile of documents on me and I am now quite desperate, my parents are desperate, too: I am an only child and they are willing to meet their daughter in law.
Please, do help me!
Answer – This is one of the many problems linked to family rejoining. They are caused by actual law and by its bureaucracy, which is rather insensible to human beings’ needs.
First of all, according to law and rules, this lady has the right to come to Italy. She was ordered expulsion in Italy, but then she was authorised to come back to Italy.
When the entry visa was being prepared, the Italian embassy found out that she was previously ordered expulsion in Greece back in 2003. The expulsion was signalled into the Schengen Information System and Schengen Treaty denies the chance of entering EU in case of expulsions. These are general instructions, but this case is different: in fact she is married to an Italian citizen, the marriage has been registered some time ago and of course Home Office took the fact under consideration. This lady has a specific and privileged juridical status. In such cases Schengen’s rules provide for the chance that EU countries release anyway a limited territorial visa, which allows to only enter that specific country.
In the case we are today studying, this citizen holds a real subjective right to come to Italy because she is married to an Italian citizen and she therefore can be considered the same as a communitarian citizen.
EU rules (Right to Travel act) provide for that EU citizens’ close relatives are extended all the dispositions concerning freedom of movement and this leads to the fact that SIS restrictions are not anymore valid. SIS restrictions are valid only to non-EU citizens.
When we talk about foreign relatives to Italian or to EU citizens, we talk about citizens that are allowed to freely move around Europe. Actual Italian laws were enforced back in 2000 and they unconditionally state this freedom and they as well state the right to work, to live here (even without working). Immigration Act art. 28 equalizes foreigners that are relatives to Italians to EU citizens and as a consequence Schengen rules and dispositions are not anymore applicable. The Italian embassy in Albania has to release an entry visa to this lady and no territorial limits should occur.
We can suggest this man to again refer to the secretary office of the President of Italian Republic (to express his disappointment and to refer of the persisting situation) where he should demand a written motivated provision to be given to the Italian embassy. In case this provision is not issued, he could formalise through legal officers a note against Foreign Affairs ministry and against the embassy in Albania. The note should ask authorities to verify matters that justify the issuing of the entry visa.