Citizenship Entitlement

[rich47]

If a non EU citizen (lady) marries a UK citizen does she immediately acquire EU citizenship?
Would that entitle her to access to EU and residency rights therein?
Any and all assistance will be gratefully received.

[Buenchico]

The person from outside the EU would need to apply for a ‘family of a settled person’ visa, entitling them (initially) to remain in the UK for 2½ years. They can then seek to renew that visa or to settle permanently in the UK.

A ‘family of a settled person’ visa entitles the holder to work in the UK but not to most state benefits. It doesn't change the citizenship of the holder or grant them travel or residency rights within the rest of the EU.

https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family/overview

[Peter Pedant]

no and no

whether or not the answer was historically yes and yes

and is changing
https://fullfact.org/europe/explaining-eu-deal-limiting-residence-rights/

so the answer to the question "where are we now?"
is different to "where are we gonna be" - after Brexit

The nuclear option is that she will end up with the rights and nationality she started off with and not less (the govt cant render someone stateless)

[Peter Pedant]

and there is also this

https://www.gov.uk/becoming-a-british-citizen/check-if-you-can-apply

actually it hasnt changed much - much

my father naturalised in 1958. He was married to ( moomeh ) a British Citizen with a wonky status following the India independence act of 1947. She had been aboding a lot but had no right of abode and wasnt patrial either - he was a citizen of a British Crown Colony - oo and had fought for King George without any of this "Are you British or what?" crap

and basically the civil servants in London said "so what?" - so he went thro the naturalisation process

[New Judge]

And just for completeness, rich, there is no such thing as "EU citizenship". You can be a citizen of a member nation of the EU but the EU is not a sovereign nation. As much as it would like you to think that it can, it cannot bestow citizenship on anybody.

[Buenchico]

^^^ Article 20(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2012/C 326/01), which the UK is a signatory to, states:
"Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to and not replace national citizenship"

[New Judge]

Yes 'Chico. But it's an "EU" term. There are lots of terms bandied about under the banner of the "fuctioning of the European Union". I could set up a private members' club and instead of calling the members "members" I could say they are citizens. It's also true that towns and cities often call their inhabitants "citizens". However, in the context of this question the "citizenship" queried by rich refers specifically to a nation. The "EU citizenship" mentioned would only be bestowed if the individual qualified for UK citizenship and that would be by virtue of the UK's membership.

One of the clearest manifestations of being a citizen of a nation is holding (or the ability to hold) a passport. The EU does not and cannot issue passports. Quite honestly the "citizenship" conferred on the inhabitants of the 28 nation states does little more than confirm that the inhabitants are citizens of an EU member nation. The additional “rights” conferred on such citizens are anyway somewhat hollow. They have the right to move about freely within the Union, take part in EU elections and to consular assistance in a Third Country from any EU consular organisation if their home country has none there. And that’s about it.