I'm an EU citizen living in a different EU country (French citizen in Sweden) and my girlfriend is non-EU (Russian). We are not married and have not cohabited yet.
Can we do the following?
- She comes to Sweden on a tourist visa,
- we get married under Swedish law in less than 90 days
- without leaving Sweden, she applies for a residence card and then stays here happily ever after.
As far as I can tell, this should be allowed under EU law: I have the right of residence in Sweden (I am employed), therefore my spouse has the right of residence as well, no matter when we got married and how she entered the country (Metock case).
But I cannot find any trace online of other people having done that, so I'd like to know if it actually works. What I'm mostly worried about is the initial trip, as she will only have a tourist visa (and informal proofs of our relationship) but she will not intend to leave Schengen within 90 days, and we will not be married yet. So even if what we are planning to do is technically legal, I'm not sure the border police will like this explanation and let her in...
Note: I'm not asking about coronavirus-related restrictions, she already managed to travel to Sweden for a few weeks on her tourist visa in November 2020 under the exemption for not-yet-married partners.