My (Jewish) wife's grandfather fled Germany around 1937. My wife applied for citizenship reclamation and the Consulate rep said everything looked good with the application, so we're hoping soon we'll hear back that my wife and two children will have Germany citizenship (dual with US). I would be the spouse of an EU citizen, so I'm hoping that will make it easier for me to get a job somewhere in the EU. We will probably move there at some point in the future. We will have school-aged children so pretty much have to establish residency for their sake/schooling so I need to do some more research on tax implications.
Try to remember this once you get to the point of moving or traveling to the EU:
You will not be considered a spouse of a EU Citizen when entering Germany as the port of entry to the EU. That is because your EU spouse has never invoked her rights as a EU Citizen and cannot do that because she entered the EU through her country of nationality and German national law applies (not good).
Do not enter another EU country and telling them at the border that you are anything other than a tourist because of the same issue: your spouse needs to have invoked her rights as a EU Citizen at least once or national law of the port of entry country applies (not good).
Do this: enter a EU country, (that could even be Germany) other than the one you are going to apply for residency in, for a short vacation. This will permit you to enter the country and will automatically give you Schengen visa rights to travel to your destination country. Tell the authorities at the border that you are taking a vacation in their country and that is obviously truthful because as you are not planning to settle there in that particular country. You are taking a vacation and have a return ticket. Otherwise STFU at the border because nobody wants to hear the long story anyway.
Travel with your spouse to the EU country you wish to eventually move to to have a look. I'm sure that your spouse will be overwhelmed by the beauty of the place and will go to the authorities to apply for residence on the spot and she will for sure get a receipt for it because that's just the way I picture her.
Bingo - a simple attempt to invoke EU Citizenship rights actually invokes them and you as the horrified spouse will forever be treated as a Family Member of a EU Citizen with rights almost similar to your spouse's. Just keep the receipt or whatever evidence they can give you, proving that your spouse invoked EU citizenship rights. It does not matter that the piece of paper does not state that EU Citizenship rights where invoked, only the fact that they were counts. So almost anything that states that one was at the office and tried to apply for residence will work - even if it was denied on the spot.
For US citizens, it is really important to understand that immigration issues with EU countries need to be sorted out while physically present in the EU whereas US immigration issues generally need to be sorted out before entering the US. It is a completely different approach.
This is not legal advice and you need to research things before you go. I just want to alert you to the fact that trying to sort out immigration issues with EU countries before you and your EU spouse are physically in the country can complicate things enormously because you will not be considered a Family Member of a EU Citizen because they themselves are not comsidered EU Citizens but only nationals of a EU country, unless they have invoked EU Citizenship rights at least once before. Until that has happened you will be a family member of a national of a EU country and that only gives you the rights of the country of nationality and that is not a good situation.
I was trying for a short and clear response but...
Another try at explaining the problem:
Simply having the nationality and passport of a EU country does not make you a EU Citizen - no matter that it says EU on the passport. But wait that is not entirely true... Being a national of a EU country does make you a EU citizen - but lower case. That's because you do not have freedom of movement and residence and immigration rights for you and your family unless you have them invoked at least once. One has to have done that at least once and it can't be done upon entry into the EU because the borders are controlled by the constituent countries.
I'm not sure I fully understand this, but definitely appreciate the info nonetheless. My understanding, for Portugal, is that I would arrive on a tourist visa, then anytime during the 3 months I'm initially allowed to stay in the country simply register with the local visa office (or maybe it's a tax office). If memory of what I read serves me right, I think I'll get a card stating that I am the spouse of an EU citizen. It's that easy as I understand it. Does that contradict anything you're trying to warn folks about?
You do not fully understand this. The reason why you have to be careful about which country you enter first, the order in which you and the EU spouse make their residence applications, and why it doesn't work at all in the country of nationality of the EU spouse, is that you are trying to use EU laws which were designed to eliminate any restrictions on the free movement of EU citizens. The EU laws were not designed to make it easy for non EU spouses to immigrate to An EU country.
Every EU country has their own national immigration law and EU law only overrides it when the free movement of EU Citizens is restricted and restriction of movement of family members is considered a restriction on free movement of EU Citizens.
So you need to enter the EU without breaking any immigration law. Because the EU cannot be entered but through a EU country, you need to chose any EU country but your future country of residence to enter the EU for which the condition of entering of being a tourist visitor is true. This needs to be really true, which means that you are really planning a vacation visit and not just use the country as a transit country to your destination country. If you use the country of entry into the EU only as a transit to another EU country then the condition of tourist visitor has to be met for the destination country in order to be admitted as a tourist visitor.
If you enter the EU through Portugal (your future country of residence), the condition of being a tourist visitor to Portugal is not true and a tourist visitor visa could only be obtained by misrepresentation. If you do this, it will be found out as soon as you present your passport at the immigration office where you make your residence application. They may let it slide but you can also get into trouble and be denied processing because they do not have to admit law breakers. When my non EU spouse made her applications, the agent carefully checked that no Spanish immigration law was violated during the process of traveling to Spain. She had an entrance stamp from Germany in her passport and we had to submit a photocopy of it, which was filed and that was it.
Once you have entered the EU as a tourist visitor to the EU country of entry, you are free to travel without further formalities to all countries under the Schengen rules because the Schengen rules are under which you were admitted. You are now free to travel to Portugal, your destination country for residence. Of course, because you are not a tourist visitor to Portugal but a immigrant visitor, traveling to Portugal is a violation of the rules under which you were admitted. This is technically illegal, but as long as you travel accompanying your EU spouse, your spouse can invoke at any time her right of freedom of movement as a EU Citizen and this covers the non EU spouse going forward. But you need to accompany your spouse for this to work.
Only when you have arrived in your future country of residence in company of your spouse without breaking any law on the way there, do the rules you mentioned apply. You go to the local immigration office (that can be anything depending on the country: proper immigration office, police station, citi hall, whatever). I would be careful that the EU spouse submits her residence application first because that ensures her legal status as a EU Citizen who has invoked treatment under EU law is officially documented with a time and date prior to your submission. You need to make your application within 90 days of arrival in the destination country and you will be provided with a residence card. Your legal residence commences with the day of submission of the request independent of having already received the card or still waiting to receive the card.
There can be a glitch when you have to document your family ties. For example, Spain does not recognize US marriage certificates and require your marriage certificate to be issued within 90 days of submission of the residence request by the EU country of nationality of the EU spouse. In the case of a EU spouse of Germany, your marriage can be registered in Germany and Germany will then issue German marriage certificates on international forms whenever you need them. Check the German consulate website for information on how to do this by mail.
