Article 10 residence card?

Question

I'm Albanian and married to a British national.

We both currently live and work in Greece and I have an EU residence permit.

We're basically trying to go to England. I know the traditional way of doing things is for her to go to the UK, and earn a certain amount of money for me to apply from Albania, but the issue is we both can't afford to quit our jobs in Greece, and her to spend about a year trying to get settled with a job that pays 18.6k in England.

I've read about SS route and Article 10 residence card.

My understanding of the situation is that I need to get a residence card "Permanent Residence Card of a Family Member of a Union Citizen", to apply for an EEA family permit.

Is that something I'm supposed to get in Greece at the ministry of foreign affairs?

Can I not go England with my wife using my EU residence card (which i acquired through work contract, and living in Greece), and marriage certificate? Can I not even visit the UK like that?

It is all very confusing on GOV.UK, sorry if the question has been answered before, if so please just give me a link to it.

Answer 1

You have misunderstood. Someone who holds an Article 10 card is exempt from the requirement to hold a visa or EEA family permit. Because your residence permit is not an Article 10 card, the easiest way for you to get into the UK ought to be to apply for the EEA family permit.

Can I not go England with my wife using my EU residence card (which i acquired through work contract, and living in Greece), and marriage certificate? Can I not even visit the UK like that?

No, your residence permit is useless in the UK because the UK is not part of the Schengen area.

Under the freedom of movement directive, you can in theory apply at the border for admission as the non-EU spouse of a British citizen via the Surinder Singh route, but you won't be able to fly into the UK without an EEA family permit or other UK visa, so that will only work if you travel by train or ferry. Besides, proving eligibility for the Surinder Singh route is fraught with difficulty, and it's not something you'd want to risk at the border. If you do, however, you'll need at least your marriage certificate, her passport, and your passport. Your residence permit will be useful, if at all, only as secondary evidence of your identity and as support for the assertion that the two of you live together in Greece.