Complex query is not working with Entity Framework “;WITH”

Question

I am working with multi-level marketing application, with Entity Framework. I have create a stored procedure but somehow the query shown below is not working - why?

;WITH OrgTree ([GenealogyTreeID], [MemberRegisterId], [ParentMemberRegisterId], Level) AS
(
    SELECT 
        [GenealogyTreeID], [MemberRegisterId],
        [ParentMemberRegisterId], 0 AS Level 
    FROM 
        GenealogyTree 
    WHERE 
        ParentMemberRegisterId IS NULL --= 'c9f8479f-2bad-4a70-9c0c-e5c9c6bb1e26'

    UNION ALL

    SELECT 
        g.[GenealogyTreeID], g.[MemberRegisterId],
        g.[ParentMemberRegisterId], OrgTree.Level + 1 
    FROM 
        GenealogyTree g
    JOIN 
        OrgTree ON g.ParentMemberRegisterId = OrgTree.MemberRegisterId
)
SELECT DISTINCT
    g.GenealogyTreeID, g.MemberRegisterId,  
    CASE 
       WHEN g.Level = 0 THEN NULL
       ELSE g.ParentMemberRegisterId 
    END AS ParentMemberRegisterId,  
    g.Level, 
    ISNULL((mmr.FirstName + ' ' + mmr.MiddleName + ' ' + mmr.LastName),
    (mr.FirstName + ' ' + mr.MiddleName + ' ' + mr.LastName)) as ParentFullName,
    (mr.FirstName + ' ' + mr.MiddleName + ' ' + mr.LastName) as SelFullName,
    mr.photo
FROM
    OrgTree g 
INNER JOIN 
    MemberRegister mr on mr.MemberRegisterId = g.MemberRegisterId
INNER JOIN 
    MemberRegister mmr on mmr.MemberRegisterId = g.ParentMemberRegisterId 
WHERE
    mr.FirstName LIKE '%'+ @SearchValue +'%' 
    OR mr.MiddleName LIKE '%'+ @SearchValue +'%' 
    OR mr.LastName LIKE '%'+ @SearchValue +'%'
    OR mmr.FirstName LIKE '%'+ @SearchValue +'%' 
    OR mmr.MiddleName LIKE '%'+ @SearchValue +'%' 
    OR mmr.LastName LIKE '%'+ @SearchValue +'%' 
ORDER BY
    ParentMemberRegisterId
    OFFSET @PageSize * (@PageNo - 1) ROWS
    FETCH NEXT @PageSize ROWS ONLY
    OPTION (RECOMPILE);

Answer 1

You should remove first ;

WITH OrgTree
  ...
;

Otherwise ORM would get first statement as empty one and ignore the second.

;WITH pattern is used because ; is not mandatory in general in T-SQL but a few statements require it like CTE/MERGE. This is why some developers start WITH with ;