fathers of French citizens
@ InPolska; I don't know how it is in France, but in Poland, like I said before, the definition includes married spouse and minor/dependant children only (also minor/dependant children of the foreign spouse). Father or mother does not count per Polish law concerning foreigners.
Exceptions may be made in the cases where the child is a minor and/or a dependant and there is no other parent to take care of the child (for example in case of death of the other parent). I am familiar with one such case. I don't know the exact mechanism though.
Going back to my original statement, if visa of the spouse of EU citizen is declined it is almost always one of the two reasons I mentioned (marriage not registered in country of the EU citizen or marriage deemed a marriage of convenience intended just to get a visa). I am only talking about the
married spouses and not about people in civil partnerships (the law on them is inconsistent across the EU).
I did not say anything in this thread about residence permit for a person already in the EU.
In Poland, residing illegally alone is not grounds for rejection per the law. There has to be another
strong reason on top of that. And like Delph said, sometimes Poland issues permits for tolerated stay to such individuals, in particular if their stay was illegal prior to them becoming spouses of Polish citizens. From a practical standpoint, the biggest difference is that while the spouse of a Polish citizen residing in Poland on the basis on a residence permit (issued based on the marriage) may apply for permanent residence after only 2 years, those that reside on the basis of permit for tolerated stay must wait 10 years before they can apply. Don't quote me on this though, I could be wrong about the 10 years for holders of permits for tolerated stay. I don't know anything about the law in France concerning foreigners so I can't comment about what goes on in France. However, all EU countries are bound by EU laws protecting families in that sense.
UK law has a minimum income expectation
This is also correct and I forgot to mention it. Like I said before, the poster is not telling us the reason for rejection for a reason. They want us to tell them what they want to hear.