Can I visit the Schengen area as a spouse of an EU national in the UK?

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I have residence card of a family member of EEA national in UK. My wife is Polish. I would like to visit Poland.

My question is whether I need visa to visit Poland.

If you are traveling with your wife, or joining her in Poland, Directive 2004/38/EC says that you do not need a visa if you present your residence card. There are two possible problems with this:

  1. Polish transposition of the directive may be incomplete. I do not know how Polish immigration officers will actually treat you in this case.

  2. The UK transposition of the UK is (formerly) incomplete. The card is supposed to say "family member of a Union citizen," and the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2016 have been amended to reflect this. In practice, this seems unlikely to cause anyone to fail to recognize your card as an Article 10 card, but I do not know.

If you are traveling without your wife, and you are not joining her, then whether you need a visa or not is governed by the Schengen Borders code and depends on your nationality.

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