George’s scenario concerns rightsof residence under the Citizens Rights Directive and administrative formalitiesfor family members who are not nationals of a Member State. This involves George’sreliance on his rights as a worker under the Citizens Rights Directive on thebasis of a cross borders employment contract between the UK and Republic ofIreland. In this scenario, Hiba is recognised as a secondary beneficiary to George’s”worker’s rights” as his “spouse” for the purposes of Article 1(b)(a) of theCitizens Rights Directive 2004. Resultantly, Article 7(2) of the CitizensRights Directive 2004, provides for the right of residence for TCN familymembers of the primary beneficiary. Thusly, in accordance with Paragraph 1(d)of Article 7, Hiba has the right of residence for more than three months on theterritory of a Member State for the purposes of accompanying or joining a Unioncitizen “worker” for the purposes of Article 7(1)(b). Pursuant to thefulfilment of administrative formalities contained within Articles 9 and 10 ofthe Citizens Rights Directive, as a non-EU family member, Hiba must then applyand receive a residence card within three months of her date of arrival;provided she fulfils the required obligations and documentation necessitatedfor the successful completion of a residence card application.
The residencecard provided for by Article 10(1) shall then be valid for five years from thedate of issue and allow Hiba to reside with George in Northern Ireland. Formerly,in accordance with Akrich C 109/01, in order to benefit as a secondarybeneficiary to the Citizens Rights Directive 2004; “a national of a non-MemberState married to a citizen of the Union must be lawfully resident in a MemberState when he or she moves to another Member State to which the citizen of theUnion is migrating or has migrated”. However, this position has since beenreversed by the decision in C-127/08 Metock whereby the Court determined thatthe Directive does not make its application conditional on the beneficiaries havingpreviously resided in a Member State. As a result, non-EU nationals; who arespouses of a Union citizen, may enjoy rights conferred by the Citizens RightsDirective irrespective of how they entered the host Member State.
