Germany: Late residence card for EEA family member

I am a British citizen living in Germany with my non-EEA spouse. We moved to Germany for my job. She applied for a German residence card in May 2014, within 3 months of moving to Germany with me. We gave them all the necessary documents (marriage certificate, etc), but they have only this week returned them to us. I lost my job in September, after 6 months. The German authorities are now (as of this week) asking for proof that we have health insurance and enough money to sustain my family in Germany before proceeding with issuing the Germany residence card for my wife. I am currently in the process of applying for unemployment benefit here in Germany.

My question are:
1. Aren't they obliged under EU Directive 2004/38/EC to issue the residence card with 6 months of application?
2. Are they allowed to be putting restrictions on the issuance of the cards after their 6 month deadline has passed?
3. How can I get them to comply with their obligations?
4. Will telling them that I am applying for unemployment benefit prejudice my wife's chances of getting her residency card?

frustratedbrit wrote:I am a British citizen living in Germany with my non-EEA spouse. We moved to Germany for my job. She applied for a German residence card in May 2014, within 3 months of moving to Germany with me. We gave them all the necessary documents (marriage certificate, etc), but they have only this week returned them to us. I lost my job in September, after 6 months. The German authorities are now (as of this week) asking for proof that we have health insurance and enough money to sustain my family in Germany before proceeding with issuing the Germany residence card for my wife. I am currently in the process of applying for unemployment benefit here in Germany.

My question are:
1. Aren't they obliged under EU Directive 2004/38/EC to issue the residence card with 6 months of application?
2. Are they allowed to be putting restrictions on the issuance of the cards after their 6 month deadline has passed?
3. How can I get them to comply with their obligations?
4. Will telling them that I am applying for unemployment benefit prejudice my wife's chances of getting her residency card?

That's very strange - as far as I know, EEA decisions (and most others) are taken on the spot during the application appointment and there should only be a wait of about 3-4 weeks for the biometric card to be printed.

What did the Ausländerbehörde say at the time of application? Was there a reason why they couldn't decide on the spot?

Were you already in your job then and did you submit evidence of that (you don't need to within 90 days of arrival but it does make things easier)?

Did you apply in a small town?

They can basically ask for proof of income, health insurance, etc. any time after 90 days of your arrival. This is now getting a lot stricter, while they didn't seem to bother with EU citizens much until November. That EU court case regarding paying benefits/ right of stay for a Romanian woman who was not working really seems to have changed things.

Did you ever chase up the case and talk to a supervisor at the Ausländerbehörde? Things like that often depend on the individual case worker as they have a lot of discretion they may or may not exercise.

What kind of unemployment benefits are you applying for? ALG I needs a full year of work in Germany, doesn't it?

Also, did you inform the Arbeitsamt and JobCenter if applicable, that you will be unemployed shortly as soon as you received the news that your job is coming to an end? If yes, you should still have health insurance. If not, you need to rectify this right now or your health insurance might charge you as voluntarily insured which is horribly expensive. You might also face a period up to three months of no unemployment payments due to late registration (although this is often not enforced, a friend of mine was blocked for a month after calling the Arbeitsamt three days too late).

Everything was held up by 7 months as they did checks on our marriage certificate and her son's birth certificate (who lives with us and is also applying). They sent these back to Vietnam to perform the checks, where my wife and stepson are from. We went to great lengths to get stamps on these documents from the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but this was not enough to satisfy the Germans, apparently.

I had already been in my job for almost 2 months when we made this original application.

We applied in a big city (Dresden).

I'm applying for Unemployment Insurance (Arbeitslosengeld I), which I know needs 12 months work in the last 24, but I have been advised that work done elsewhere in the EU counts towards this, but I need a PDU1 form from the countries I worked in. Applying for a PDU1 form from the UK took 2 over two months in total. Then I booked an appointment with the unemployment office, who have a 6-week waiting time for appointments at the moment, due to a surge in unemployment in the region, and our appointment is at the end of January.

When I found out about losing my job, I needed an interpreter to help me with the unemployment office, but the interpreter could only earliest turn up on Thursday 4pm, which was when the office closed, and they refused to see us. We turned up the next morning, but we had then missed the 3-day deadline. It took 3 appointments to determine that I would be eligible for Arbeitslosengeld I. They had told us twice no, but a friend of a friend told me they were wrong, so I went back a third time and was told that I did indeed qualify if I could supply various documents including a PDU1 form.

Payments to my health insurer have lapsed, but they are hanging on for the while keeping me insured, and I think are issuing a letter to say that I'm still insured.

frustratedbrit wrote:Everything was held up by 7 months as they did checks on our marriage certificate and her son's birth certificate (who lives with us and is also applying). They sent these back to Vietnam to perform the checks, where my wife and stepson are from. We went to great lengths to get stamps on these documents from the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but this was not enough to satisfy the Germans, apparently.

I had already been in my job for almost 2 months when we made this original application.

We applied in a big city (Dresden).

I'm applying for Unemployment Insurance (Arbeitslosengeld I), which I know needs 12 months work in the last 24, but I have been advised that work done elsewhere in the EU counts towards this, but I need a PDU1 form from the countries I worked in. Applying for a PDU1 form from the UK took 2 over two months in total. Then I booked an appointment with the unemployment office, who have a 6-week waiting time for appointments at the moment, due to a surge in unemployment in the region, and our appointment is at the end of January.

When I found out about losing my job, I needed an interpreter to help me with the unemployment office, but the interpreter could only earliest turn up on Thursday 4pm, which was when the office closed, and they refused to see us. We turned up the next morning, but we had then missed the 3-day deadline. It took 3 appointments to determine that I would be eligible for Arbeitslosengeld I. They had told us twice no, but a friend of a friend told me they were wrong, so I went back a third time and was told that I did indeed qualify if I could supply various documents including a PDU1 form.

Payments to my health insurer have lapsed, but they are hanging on for the while keeping me insured, and I think are issuing a letter to say that I'm still insured.

Never heard of this document checking thing in case of EEA family member - it's standard procedure if a German or settled person applies to get married to a non-EEA person in Germany. That can indeed take a long time.

I am not sure how "document checking" is viewed in EU law. For German applications, the application would not be viewed as complete until validity of documents is ascertained and processing time would only start when it is sure that all documents are legit (as a fake document would indeed mean a missing document).

Dresden.

I am loath to say it but even after 25 years, the East is still a lot less diverse and that shows in how they deal with things. An acquaintance of a friend of mine (an Autralian Au Pair) was threatened with deportation (!) by her local (eastern) Ausländerbehörde, while the one in Berlin, after she moved and registered there, simply shrugged and gave her a temporary residence permit to find a new host family. And that's not the only strange story I have heard. Wouldn't have expected it from Dresden, though.

I think your best bet is to compile evidence about your job that you had for six months (contract, payslips, bank statements, termination letter) and any documentation that you got from the Arbeitsamt showing that you are registered as a jobseeker. On top of that, I hope you have been actively applying for jobs - show as much evidence as possible of that as well: A list of places you have applied at together with job ads from newspapers or off the internet, letters acknowledging receipt of your application, invitations to interviews or rejections. Anything that shows that you are indeed "jobseeking" and have a realistic chance of success.

Get everything together, dress nicely and go to the Ausländerbehörde explaining all of this personally (politely, etc.) to the case worker and if need be their supervisor, head of department...

Do you want to stay in Germany long term or are you just trying to get the residence card to have a stronger case for the SS route?

Thanks for the advice. That's an interesting point about when the six months actually starts. I understand what you say about the East, and have seen it in terms of my ex-boss and my stepson's school, as well as officialdom. What I find incredible is the total lack of compassion for our very unfortunate situation caused by matters completely out of our control, and absolutely no initiative shown to help us out of it. Another example is dealing with our Arbeitslosengeld I application. I lost my job in early September, and even though the bulk of the delay has been due to the UK tax authority, you would have thought that they would accelerate our appointment, given that a late January appointment will mean 4.5 months of waiting. I'm expecting the application to be thrown out, despite the official telling us that we would get it.

We are still pursuing the residency cards because, at the moment, we're not certain what we do next, and it just makes sense to get these and then possibly we have more options, or at least things should be simpler for us (e.g. in making the SS route easier). However, it's highly likely that we return to the UK soon, and I'm now wondering whether the residence cards are worth the hassle, especially given that we already know Family Permits get us back into the UK (at least until the general election) albeit with a little hassle. But we'll still turn up as you suggest, you never know it might work.

Maybe you should ask solvit for help with your residence card.
Processing time more than 6 month is not acceptable.

So does anyone know what should happen if they do accept that our application was made in May, and accept that their 6 month limit for issuing the card has been passed? Where do I stand? Must they issue the cards immediately without delay? Or are they allowed to be putting conditions on our status at the moment (specifically, our ability to support ourselves)? We certainly passed those conditions back in May when the application was made, but I'm not sure whether we would pass now.

hello,
i am ramesh. living in italy about 8 years, just recently got my EU long term residence permit. Honestly i wanted to move in Germany. But if i convert my italian long term residence in to German long term residence, How long do i need for citizenship of Germany?
Advance thanks.