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I am a Turkish citizen, living in Germany with my Greek citizen wife, holding a Residence Card of EU Family Members under Article 10 of Directive 2004/38/EC, issued from Germany.

I have to visit Ireland for a week for a business meeting, but still have no exact info about whether I can travel alone or not.

I sent a mail to Dublin Airport Immigration authorities and they replied that I can travel alone with my card. I still want to ask about recent possible experiences about this situation.

Thanks in advance for any comment and stay healthy. Cheers.

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The opposite is certainly true. The Practical Handbook for Border Guards (which applies only to the Schengen area) has this example:

A Slovak citizen resides with his Chinese spouse in Ireland. The Chinese spouse holding a residence card, issued by Ireland under Article 20 of Directive 2004/38/EC, travels alone to France. The Irish residence card has visa exempting effect in France even if its holder travels alone.

Does Ireland make a similar statement? It took me a while to find it, but yes they do:

You do not need an Irish visa to travel to Ireland if: [...] you have a document called “Residence card of a family member of a Union citizen” issued, by any country, under Article 10 of Directive 2004/38/EC (the “Free Movement Directive”). Please contact the authority who issued the document for advice if the document you have comes within the definition of the Directive, as implemented by that particular Member State; [...]

There's no mention of traveling with or to join your relevant EU/EEA family member.

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Thank you for your efforts.

I have also found the same info on another page. I also figured out with the Wayback machine, they have just added the below info some months ago. Before, this note was not present.

"Please note, if you are the holder of a document called “Residence card of a family member of a Union citizen” as referred to in Articles 5(2) and 10(1) of Directive 2004/38/EC on the rights of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of Member States, then you are not a visa required national for Ireland and can travel to the State without a visa, independently of whether your Union citizen family member accompanies or joins you in this State, for up to but not exceeding a period of 90 days."

There are so many info around that it was not possible, but i think Irish authorities finally figured out the correct way to act in this case.

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  • I suspect that this question may have been the subject of a court ruling, which would be an obvious possible explanation for the recent addition of this language. I say this because I recall being surprised to see the similar example in the Schengen handbook a year or two ago for the first time, and because I remember the UK adopting the contrary policy before it left the EU.
    – phoog
    Commented Jan 23 at 9:50

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