Dual Nationality and EU Regulation

Toufik Lounes v SSHD C165/16.

On 14th November 2017 the Grand Chambers of the Court of Justice published its judgement in the case of Lounes. The Case concerned Garcia Ormazabal, a Spanish national who moved to the UK to study in 1996, and has lived in the UK ever since. In 2009 she became a British citizen by naturalisation and retained her Spanish nationality. In 2014 she married an Algerian national, Mr Lounes, who was living in the UK illegally having overstayed his visitors visa. He applied to the Home Office for a residence card under the EA Regulations 2006 and this application was refused in May 2014 on the grounds that his wife did not meet the definition of an EA national under Regulation 2 of the EA Regulations 2006 because she was now a British citizen.

The Court held that an EU citizen who moved to another member state and acquired the nationality of that member state retains family reunion rights under EU law! Directive 2004/38 ceased to apply when the EU citizen acquired nationality of the second member state but Article 21(1) of TFEU provides a derivative right of residence to third country nationality family members of the EU citizen on conditions no stricter than those contained in directive 2004/38.