EU Directive 2004/38/EC

Hi,

First of all I have been browsing this forum for very long time and it has helped as great deal. I would like to thank all those who have helped in making of Surrinder Singh route possible with information.

I am a British citizen and my wife is a Pakistani citizen. We have applied for EU Directive visa from Pakistan on 21st of April 2015. As far as I am aware under this directive visa should be accelerated and processed within 4 weeks.

It has been 10 weeks and we are still waiting to receive my wife’s passport. We have sent many emails to Dublin and Irish Consulate in Karachi. Most of the time we don’t get replies to our emails however sometimes we do get reply after 2 weeks. We got last reply from Dublin on 22nd of June confirming that my wife’s visa has been granted and we should contact their consulate in Karachi. We have contacted Irish consulate in Karachi but we are still waiting for answer after 10 days.

Just to recap we applied for visa 10 weeks ago, it was granted after 8 weeks and we are yet to receive my wife’s passport back. Can we do anything to speed the process or to make complaint as the passport is long overdue?


Edit:
We sent our application through Gerry’s in Pakistan. In last few months we can’t make application direct to Irish Consulate. Gerry’s only receive/collect applications and forwards them to Irish consulate. Consulate then forward passports to Gerry’s and that’s where we have to collect our passport from. We have contacted Gerry’s for so many times and they said they don’t have my wife’s Passport and we should contact the Irish consulate in Karachi. Gerry’s is not only charging 45 Euros to file application but have also increased the processing time. This process adds another level of bureaucracy which this directive is designed to reduce both in cost and time.

My friend's wife got Irish visa from Pakistan after a full one year. So, you should be thankful. In immigration matters, the thing that is required most is, patience.

Assalam bro

I got mines too from Karachi in Feb this year

to be honest it was a nightmare

It was approved ages ago but Karachi consulate was adamant they sent my passport via Gerry. Gerry were saying they never got my passport . After three weeks of emails and phone call found out that my passport was with gerry's but they never bother to inform me. They sent an email to consulate that they were trying to contact me through my phone but couldnt get a hold of me Well obviously because they had written down my number wrong. Anyway when I got my passport and looked at the visa it 09/03/15 and my visa expiry date was 10/03/15 just half a day to get to Dublin. Turned out Consulate had put the month instead of may as march.

anyway emailed doj and asked them and they finally sent an email to consulate to change my sticker but it took them anothe four weeks.

i hope your case is straight forward

thanks

ali

Finally letter of complaint worked. Passport was with Gerry's, we picked it up today.

PrestonLancs wrote:My friend's wife got Irish visa from Pakistan after a full one year. So, you should be thankful. In immigration matters, the thing that is required most is, patience.

A year for Non EU spouse Visa? There is something wrong as EU Directive guidance states it should take 4 weeks. A year is way too long , my wife's visa took 10 weeks.

Wsalam Ali.

Am sorry to hear you had to go through so much, I hope everything is working out for you now. Am wondering which city in Ireland are you staying? How did you find accommodation when you first arrived? We will need to book hotel for a week and look for accommodation. I would ideally like to like in or around Dublin, but not sure with high cost of living. Do you have any tips on house hunting?

Yes. It took a full year. His wife had previously applied for UK visa and refused. and it was a complicated case. Ireland does check with UK Home office. Any previous refusals/bad immigration history to any eu country does delay the Irish visa application.

Forget about what's written on paper, real life can sometimes be quite different.

It appears that right now, the visas are taking a little longer than usual. But people should not panic if they just applied 3-4 weeks ago.