This is a little bit of information of how I went about exercising my EEU Freedom of Movement Treaty Rights/Surinder Singh Route.

I cant claim that all the information is correct, that it will apply to everyone, or that everyone will have the same experience. This is my experience of how I did it. My husband is South African so he didnt need a visa to enter Ireland. Below is a list of countries that dont need a visa. Schedule 1 countries dont need a visa. A schedule list can be found here - http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/SINo417.pdf/Files/SINo417.pdf If your spouse needs a visa to enter Ireland, someone on the site should be able to help you with the application process. Preparation: Select which country will best suit your needs. We chose Ireland as I dont speak any other language and I have 3 kids so for us it was less disruptive. You might want to research countries before deciding to determine cost of living, unemployment rate, rental prices etc. I can only comment on Ireland as I didnt consider any other country. Useful Information Sites There are 2 documents you need to be familiar with when taking the EEU Freedom of Movement/Surinder Singh route. Freedom to move and live in Europe - A Guide to your rights as an EU citizen I consider this document the Bible of EEU Freedom of Movement/Surinder Singh route. It explains the process in fairly easy to understand terms. It is a summary of the Directive 2004/38/EC*.
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/citizenship/docs/guide_free_movement_low.pdf

DIRECTIVE 2004/38/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL This document is the official directive. You should make yourself familiar with it. I would suggest you print this and make sure you have it with you when you arrive in the country you are going to exercise your rights in. Highlight sections specific to your circumstances so that if asked, you can refer to this document.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do? uri=OJ:L:2004:158:0077:0123:EN:PDF

I found the following link useful; it is a document on the Home Office website, I think it is a guideline for immigration staff confirming our rights as European citizens and family members of European citizens.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/policyandlaw/ecis/chapter2. pdf?view=Binary

The Process: When you have all your visas etc. sorted and ready to go, you will most likely book your flights. Be aware that most airlines will insist on return tickets even though you are going to settle in Ireland. They are not willing to accept liability on Ireland refusing entry as

they will be responsible for your return flight at their expense. We couldnt find an airline who would allow us to fly one-way. On arrival in Ireland, you should go to the Non EEU line. When you get to the immigration desk, the officer will most likely ask why you are travelling to Ireland. My husband and I deliberated over this. He wanted to tell them that he was visiting. I disagreed as I felt we are not doing anything wrong and we are well within our rights to exercise our treaty rights. We compromised by telling the officer that we were settling and planning to start our own business in Ireland. If we were challenged with this, I was going to state that we were EEU Freedom of Movement route. This is when it is useful to know the Directive and have it available so that you can point out your rights if they are questioned. I read somewhere before we came that the immigration officers at the airport are the gatekeepers for Ireland, they are not the ones who will ultimately decide your fate so only give them as much information as they ask to get through immigration with a 3 month stamp in your spouses passport. My husband was given a 3 month stamp on his passport and we were told to report to the Garda before the 3 months were up to apply for GNIB (residency card). He advised to wait 2 months so that we had enough proof to satisfy immigration. Here is a link to the Citizens Information site with details on how to apply for Registration of non-EEA nationals in Ireland: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/moving_to_ireland/rights_of_residen ce_in_ireland/registration_of_non_eea_nationals_in_ireland.html We were then sent on our merry way. Whilst in Ireland: Organize to have some kind of invoice/confirmation sent to your address for both of you to assist you with opening accounts, registering PPS etc Open bank account in both names if possible Register for your PPS number as soon as possible Register GNIB or send EU1 to register presence in Ireland within 3 months Proof of Exercising Your Freedom of Movement Rights: You will have to make sure you prove everything to satisfy the UKBE that you have exercised your rights by making sure that you create a documented life. Heres a few tips: Make sure you put your rental lease in both your names Ask the landlord when he/she will register the rental (its law in Ireland). You will need confirmation of this at a later date Make sure you take photographs of you both together often to confirm that you lived together in Ireland You cannot do anything in Ireland without a proof of address. You need to organise this as soon as you have an address as you will need this to open a bank account and get a PPS number

The proof of address must be something that has been mailed to you at your address You should also arrange for a utility account to be put in both names e.g. gas or electricity this helps provide proof at a later stage of living together Apply for a PPS number as soon as possible. As we registered in Navan, we had to wait 5 weeks just to get an appointment with the social welfare office. However, you get your number within a few days in Dublin

Some Facts: You can work without a PPS number but will pay emergency tax You need to work at least 10 hours for 12 weeks. There is some debate that it might be 5.5 or 12 hours so to be safe, it is suggested a minimum of 12. There are people who have moved to the UK after 13 weeks so it is possible. Pre-school children are entitled to 1 year in pre-school free of charge Applying for EU1 is registering your presence Popular sites for rentals is www.daft.ie, www.rent.ie, www.gumtree.ie,

Our Start-Up Costs:

This is very dependent on your own situation. Our costs were very high but we are a family of 5 with a special needs daughter and starting our own internet based business so our costs are much higher than most. We also needed a car. Anyway, here are the costs for my set up costs excluding purchase of car and household items: 10 Days in hotel: 10 Days car hire Internet 890.00 450.00 319.00 45.00 per month thereafter

Sky 35.00 per month 6 Months pre-paid Refuse Collection 156.00 Car Tax (6 months) 250.00 Gas Deposit 200.00 Car Insurance Deposit 140.00 82.00 per month thereafter Rental Deposit 800.00 1st month rent 800.00 We worked out that our monthly living costs will be +/- 2500 euros per month.

We had only budgeted for 2000 set up costs so you can imagine the effect doubling that budget had on us! We also spent more than double our budget on a car as the cars within our budget would be lucky if they left their parking space! Still bought a piece of rubbish though, has cost us a fortune since we bought it. Most peoples expenses will be much lower than ours. A few people have advised to have 2500 euros savings when arriving in Ireland to tide you by until you start working if you are doing it on a tight budget i.e. staying in hostel etc. Mistakes I Made: Dont arrive at the weekend. Dublin is busy, hotels are expensive and estate agents dont work over the weekend so we wasted 2 precious house hunting days. We arrived on the 1st day of the school holidays on a Friday and only looked for a hotel a couple of nights before we left. It seemed that Ireland as a whole was really busy. I spent 2 days calling B&Bs to no avail so we were forced to book a more expensive hotel. If you need to hire a car, dont wait until arrival at Dublin. We could have paid half the price for car hire if we had pre-booked it. Make sure the area you live in has internet access or ability to connect easily We trusted the landlord that it is easy to have internet installed and that Sky/UPS would be the best bet. When we moved in, we found out that UPS doesnt cover the area and Sky could only provide TV, not internet/phone. We were forced to go to Ripple.com as they cover the area . Stay away from them, their service is shocking and they are VERY expensive. Our business is reliant on having internet so had no choice. Paid a whopping 300 euros installation fees! Beware of estate agents telling you that you can get accommodation last minute. As you can see below, I have an issue with estate agents in Ireland! We phoned a few estate agents 3 months before we moved over to ask about renting. We were told that due to the recession, there are a huge number of houses on the rental market and our budget of 600 euros would be more than enough. We registered and called them as requested a couple of weeks before we left. Every one of the agents we had made arrangements with back tracked. They all of a sudden had no properties available. When we arrived in Ireland, we spent the weekend driving around looking at houses advertised on Daft so that we could shortlist the houses we were interested in. We called the relevant agents on the Monday to make appointments. They seemed fine on the phone (I have a Scottish accent) but when we met them at the house, they started to come up with every excuse under the sun that we couldnt have the house or shouldnt take it. We offered to pay deposits but were told that the person actually dealing with it wasnt in (2 agents did this). Thereafter, they did not return calls or e-mails. Other agents just didnt follow up on our request. Our impression was that non-nationals are not welcome although it could be a number of reasons i.e. South African husband, special needs child, having three children. Incidentally, one of the houses we looked at was a huge 4 bedroom house, we were told when she met us that the owner actually preferred a couple with no children to rent even though we told her we had 3 children on the phone! We ended up staying in a hotel much longer than we budgeted for and had to increase our monthly rental budget by 200 euros.