The European court of Justice will decide a case that could affect all EU citizens applying for British passports. The court will consider whether the UK government has breached the family rights of a dual British-Spanish citizen seeking to have her Algerian husband live with her in the UK.

The case was brought following a decision by the UK Home Office to refuse a dual British-Spanish citizen the right to have her husband, an Algerian citizen, lives with her in the UK. The Spanish national had come to the UK exercising her rights under the European treaty on freedom of movement. She acquired permanent residence and then British citizenship. However, she also retained her Spanish citizenship, which she believed enabled her to have her husband, Toufik Lounes, join her.


Her husband applied for a residence card as a partner of an EU national exercising treaty rights in the UK. The Home Office refused his application on the grounds that she could not rely on her EU freedom of movement rights, which include the right to bring in a family member, as she was a British national as well as an EU national.


She took the Home Office to court, but in March 2016 the High court referred this case to the European court of Justice to decide whether the UK Government decision was lawful.


Parminder Saini, an immigration barrister and counsel for Lounes, said the case would be a “milestone in the interplay between EU law and European case law on free movement and the UK’s domestic interpretation of that law”.


He said it would have wider implications for every EU state as it concerns the ability of any EU member state to curtail freedom of movement rights under their domestic law.

“If the UK’s interpretation of the law is correct, it shall mean that all EU nationals living in the UK, who have also acquired dual British nationality, will no longer be able to rely on their free movement rights after gaining British nationality, as they will no longer be recognised by the UK as EU citizens in that context,” said Saini.

The preliminary opinion of the advocate general of the European court is due on 30 May and a judgment to be published in the summer.