Quote Originally Posted by darren-b View Post
This might save you some effort...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

It will be the same for every country that has fully implemented the Schengen agreement as there are no borders between the countries.

In terms of shafting it's really both ways as the Embassies in the UK have to issue a visa to spouses of British citizens and they can't charge for it (so it costs them money...).

Luckily for spouses of British citizens they can apply for British citizenship after only 3 years anyway and leave all of this visa nonsense behind.
Unfortunately it doesn´t work in the opposite direction ...
We went through the pain of getting a visa for the UK for my wife ...
There´s no such thing like a UK-visa exemption for spouses of Schengen-Country citizens.
Only the visa fee is waived.
Here in Germany foreign citizens - even with permanent residence status do not get a separate residence card (does not exist here).
Only few Schengen countries may have such an ID (e.g.: France / called "Carte de Sejour")

Also i don´t understand why entry (to the UK as well as in the opposite direction to Schengen countries is limited to travelling with their "EU-spouse" only)