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I have a connecting flight to KSA via Larnaca, Cyprus. My partner is an EU citizen living in the UK, and I have settled status, but my passport is Pakistani. As a spouse of an EU citizen and having settled status do I need to have a visa for Larnaca, Cyprus and Budapest?

Edit: After reading comments, I wanted to update for more details, My itinerary is LGW-LCA-JED and on way back JED-BUP-LGW, yes I am travelling with my spouse.

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  • Is your partner a citizen of either Hungary or Cyprus?
    – Nicolas Formichella
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 10:21
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    Are you travelling with your spouse? What is your actual flight itinerary?
    – xngtng
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 10:39
  • Why are you asking about Budapest? Are you flying from Budapest to Larnaca? Do you have a flight back to the UK via Budapest? Some other reason?
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 10:55
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    @phoog I think a tag for eu-family-member might be a good addition. Would spare having to add two tags.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 11:08
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    @phoog Expatriates has a eu-spouses, but that doesn't cover dependent children or parents. eu-spouses could be set as a synonym for eu-family-member.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 11:35

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As a national of Pakistan, you require an airport transit visa in the Schengen area (including Hungary) as well as countries applying Schengen rules in view of joining the area (Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus). You would be exempt if you hold a visa or residence permit from any EEA countries, Canada, Japan, or the United States. You are also legally exempt if you are a family member of an EEA citizen and you are travelling with them or joining them.

UK is no longer in the EEA so its residence permit no longer matters.

However, for the family exemption, you may have practical problem when boarding the flights as the family member exemption is not explicit in Timatic or TravelDocs for Cyprus (the exemption is shown for Hungary), which is often used by the airlines to decide if you may board a flight or not for immigration reasons. The airlines may also refuse boarding if they are not satisfied that you are a family member of the EU citizen.

The more straightforward way that facilitate your travel is probably to apply a Schengen visa to Hungary (or any Schengen country) as a family member of an EU citizen, stating you will be travelling with your EU spouse in exercise of your freedom of movement under EU law. The visa by law should be free of charge and processed within 15 days. A Schengen visa exempt you from all airport transit visa requirements in the EU.

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  • Got email from embassay, ATM if transit is less than 12 hours, u do not need a permit visa., but I wonder if that is true for schengen state as well?
    – localhost
    Commented Jul 31, 2023 at 12:44

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