Spouse Schengen visa denied

Final update

My husbands visa was finally granted.

In the end it was all down to the work of the European Commission. I had a lawyer, I contacted Solvit, I contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I went through the appeals process. But in the end only the European Commission's investigation brought us to this point.

The Consulate was willing to reopen my husbands original application to change the decision however since we also lost the appeal they couldn't do it. It was amazing how much their tune had changed once they got the Commission's letter. Ever so friendly. We did have to provide our documents again and they requested plane reservation tickets showing that we would travel together. They are allowed to request this despite what other people might advise here because they are allowed to ask for evidence showing we will travel together. To be honest you are better off showing as much documents as you can to avoid anything like this even though you do not have to.

I would advise anyone who goes through something like this to please not rely on Solvit. They were an absolute waste of time for me. Also know that you should appeal but the appeals system is a joke, we waited 3 months for them to reply to us and they didn't change the decision. As soon as you can lodge your complaint with the European Commission, Migration and Home Affairs, B2 Visa Policy Unit. Basically if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with the Consulate doesn't give a satisfactory answer about why they denied you your rights, the Commission can take them to court. This can take up to 2 years. However, the possibility of this clearly scares those who made the decision which is why in my case they did what they could to accommodate us.

Unfortunately the only thing is that even though we won in the end we waited a really long time. We applied back in March and now this is August. There really is no way of speeding it up no matter how hard you try. We wanted to give up so many times but I am so glad that we fought for our rights in the end no matter how stressful it was.

charmender wrote:Final update

My husbands visa was finally granted.

In the end it was all down to the work of the European Commission. I had a lawyer, I contacted Solvit, I contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I went through the appeals process. But in the end only the European Commission's investigation brought us to this point.

The Consulate was willing to reopen my husbands original application to change the decision however since we also lost the appeal they couldn't do it. It was amazing how much their tune had changed once they got the Commission's letter. Ever so friendly. We did have to provide our documents again and they requested plane reservation tickets showing that we would travel together. They are allowed to request this despite what other people might advise here because they are allowed to ask for evidence showing we will travel together. To be honest you are better off showing as much documents as you can to avoid anything like this even though you do not have to.

I would advise anyone who goes through something like this to please not rely on Solvit. They were an absolute waste of time for me. Also know that you should appeal but the appeals system is a joke, we waited 3 months for them to reply to us and they didn't change the decision. As soon as you can lodge your complaint with the European Commission, Migration and Home Affairs, B2 Visa Policy Unit. Basically if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with the Consulate doesn't give a satisfactory answer about why they denied you your rights, the Commission can take them to court. This can take up to 2 years. However, the possibility of this clearly scares those who made the decision which is why in my case they did what they could to accommodate us.

Unfortunately the only thing is that even though we won in the end we waited a really long time. We applied back in March and now this is August. There really is no way of speeding it up no matter how hard you try. We wanted to give up so many times but I am so glad that we fought for our rights in the end no matter how stressful it was.

Congratulations for the Success .

HI Khanmzk.
i was reading your story ,did you get any success in getting visa yet ?

charmender wrote:Final update

My husbands visa was finally granted.

Congratulations.
Inspiring story.

Viva free movement!

Hi Khanmzk,

How is it with your visa application?

You mentioned about EC PR in one of your posts, what did you mean?

I am trying to get in my wife into the UK but she in non-european.

Thanks

Hi Charmender,

Congs on your visa.

How do you go about contacting European Commission, Migration and Home Affairs, B2 Visa Policy Unit?

I am British citizen myself married to a Tanzanian citizen August 2015 last year. We have applied for a invitation visa for my wife to join me on holiday in Malta.

Apparently Malta does not have an embassy in Uganda so we applied through the Italian Embassy. The visa application has been declined on grounds that the marriage certificate submitted is not recognized by the Italian Embassy even though we have had a certifying and sealed letter from the National Registrar in TZ where we were married. Religious Bodies conduct marriages and are legally recognized by the state. If one wished to have their marriage recorded on the National register all they do is present the certificate issued by the body that married them to be verified, recorded and certified.

We have had a letter from the National Registrar's office but they wont accept it.

I see no point of appealing to them because there is nothing more we are going to provide.

Any one out there with a solution for us please?

Thanks

knassib wrote:Hi Charmender,

Congs on your visa.

How do you go about contacting European Commission, Migration and Home Affairs, B2 Visa Policy Unit?

I am British citizen myself married to a Tanzanian citizen August 2015 last year. We have applied for a invitation visa for my wife to join me on holiday in Malta.

Apparently Malta does not have an embassy in Uganda so we applied through the Italian Embassy. The visa application has been declined on grounds that the marriage certificate submitted is not recognized by the Italian Embassy even though we have had a certifying and sealed letter from the National Registrar in TZ where we were married. Religious Bodies conduct marriages and are legally recognized by the state. If one wished to have their marriage recorded on the National register all they do is present the certificate issued by the body that married them to be verified, recorded and certified.

We have had a letter from the National Registrar's office but they wont accept it.

I see no point of appealing to them because there is nothing more we are going to provide.

Any one out there with a solution for us please?

Thanks

Google Italian forgien ministry public relations office. Sent them an email explain your situation. Ask them why the embassy is not accepting your marriage certificate.
If not what stamp of approval is required on your marriage certificate to be accepted by your embassy staff.

Ask them to send you the required documents list for the visa you require after you got a reply from them send it to embassy tell them this what your foreign office says.

Register your case with solvit. Eu complain department. If you get a good reply from them forward that also to the embassy.

That's what my friend did with the Italian embassy when they refused to take their application for schengen visa. The reason was why thier marriage certificate is not stamped by British embassy. British embassies never stamp or legalise foreign documents. After the above steps my friend got the schengen visa.

I hope that will help you.

Thx Sincejune,

Will try that.

Was a bit sceptical about solvit as comments about their response were not good.

Thanks again

knassib wrote:Hi Charmender,

Congs on your visa.

How do you go about contacting European Commission, Migration and Home Affairs, B2 Visa Policy Unit?

I am British citizen myself married to a Tanzanian citizen August 2015 last year. We have applied for a invitation visa for my wife to join me on holiday in Malta.

Apparently Malta does not have an embassy in Uganda so we applied through the Italian Embassy. The visa application has been declined on grounds that the marriage certificate submitted is not recognized by the Italian Embassy even though we have had a certifying and sealed letter from the National Registrar in TZ where we were married. Religious Bodies conduct marriages and are legally recognized by the state. If one wished to have their marriage recorded on the National register all they do is present the certificate issued by the body that married them to be verified, recorded and certified.

We have had a letter from the National Registrar's office but they wont accept it.

I see no point of appealing to them because there is nothing more we are going to provide.

Any one out there with a solution for us please?

Thanks

Hi,

You can contact through the following:

just-citizenship@ec.europa.eu (This is the department which deals with union citizenship and free movement).

Or submit a complaint here: http://ec.europa.eu/atwork/applying-eu- ... int_en.htm

For the visa policy unit I just sent an email directly to the Commissioner Avramopoulos. You will have to search for his details online and find his team contact details so you can cc them. Usually if you cc others they will reply.

I can't really advise you on what to do because I don't know the rules of where you are. But be advised that the European Commission does not respond quickly. You may have to hire a lawyer if you want it to be dealt with as soon as possible.

charmender wrote:Yes that is what I was thinking to. I have contacted some lawyers so I will see what they say.

Anyone have any knowledge on the other institutions. There is also the ECHR ad ECJ and I am wondering if I can use them too since the EU general court has also has at least one judge from each member state.

Did it help that you used the lawyer or did the Commission assist anyways? Any idea on how much it costs to hire a lawyer from Malta?
The Maltese authorities have been changing their stance each time. Initially they said that they want to prevent abuse and our Indian Marriage Certificate has not been registered in Austria (my wife's country) and asked for any other proof of durable relationship in the past 2 years. In return we provided them with WhatsApp chats. We contacted the Austrian Embassy and they mentioned that they don't think of it as a marriage of convenience and are in touch with the Maltese. Now the Maltese mention that they need to check if our certificate is valid. This is despite the fact that the certificate has an apostille and was accepted with no issues by the Irish authorities (we withdrew the Irish application because of the long waiting period and applied to Malta instead).
I think the Maltese authorities are deliberately trying to delay our visa. It has been more than 6 weeks now since we applied.
Need some advice here.

Regards,
Solomon

My visa was refused and we have been asked to appeal. Just wanted to know if a recent marriage and a cohabitation of only 2 months considered abuse? The High Commission of Malta in India mentioned that the marriage was contracted solely for freedom of movement and that we need to have lived together for at least 2 years. Is their inference correct?

The 2 year cohabitation is only for unmarried partners or when registered partnership is not recognized in a host member state say for example Poland, then your application will be considered as family ties based on durable relationship according to the host member states' domestic law which usually requires 2 years of cohabitation.

The above does not apply when the family ties is based on marriage, I believe they are considering it to be a sham marriage, in this case the burden of proof is on them and not you. they have to prove that it is sham marriage. If I was you I would actually show them even though you don't have to, that you have met in person long before the marriage like trips abroad, if you or her traveled to each other countries, pics, correspondence. I hope you get it sorted.

charmender wrote:Well the latest is that the the visa policy unit of the European Commission has contacted me saying that they believe Malta was wrong in its actions and they have told me they will contact the Maltese authorities for us.

Not sure how it will go or how long that will take but hopefully it will give some good news. At least if they complain and get Malta to admit they were wrong we could have a chance to reapply and this time they probably wouldn't mess up.

Also as a fyi, the Malta Appeals Board meets only once a week. No wonder its been taking so long. Its an unbelievable slow system. I think a big flaw in all of this is that the EU has no common approach on the appeals system.

@charmender
after sending query to eu commision how long did you wait for reply. I am in same case send them my file but no reply yet.

gokulatti wrote:The 2 year cohabitation is only for unmarried partners or when registered partnership is not recognized in a host member state say for example Poland, then your application will be considered as family ties based on durable relationship according to the host member states' domestic law which usually requires 2 years of cohabitation.

The above does not apply when the family ties is based on marriage, I believe they are considering it to be a sham marriage, in this case the burden of proof is on them and not you. they have to prove that it is sham marriage. If I was you I would actually show them even though you don't have to, that you have met in person long before the marriage like trips abroad, if you or her traveled to each other countries, pics, correspondence. I hope you get it sorted.

Actually, I showed them a joint pic of ours, our respective visas showing visits to each others countries with immigration stamps for the dates, WhatsApp, Google+ chats, our correspondence with the Registrar and Austrian Consulate before we got married regarding our plans to marry, my bachelorhood affidavit, job application for a couple of companies in Malta etc. I even asked the Austrian Consulate if they considered it a marriage of convenience, to which they replied in the negative and I forwarded that mail to Solvit. Even the Austrian Consulate mentioned that they were in touch with the Maltese High Commission when I checked with them.
Despite all of this evidence being submitted, they rejected my visa with the earlier mentioned reason
When I contacted the Austrians after rejection for a possible reason (the Maltese mentioned they checked with consulates), they said they have no say over the Maltese. Solvit replied that they are responsible only for speeding up a decision and that's it.
Now, I plan to do an appeal, though I really doubt any of these people really care. Any ideas?
BTW, we had earlier applied to Ireland and later withdrew it because there is apparently no deadlines on the Irish along with UK, Denmark unlike the max 60 day limit for other countries. Solvit mentioned that it should not affect our application to Malta though.

Just an update:

I searched for jobs in Malta and found one that would sponsor me for a work permit. They invited me for a final interview in Malta and suggested I apply for an interview visa. However, the Maltese rejected even this application under the clause 'intention to leave territory before expiry of visa could not be ascertained'.
This is despite me booking a flight from India which does not land in any other EU country en route as suggested by the company. The company had even suggested them to provide at least a limited territory visa. However, in their refusal, they mentioned that they were advised to refuse it by other EU Embassies.

As for the appeals, it has been more than 2 months, but the standard reply is that they are creating a case report and it is pending with the Central Visa Unit.

Could it be that me mailing to the EU Commission made them want to withhold the visa? And does getting a lawyer help by any means? They seem to charge heavily and if it is going to take n number of court appearings, we don't have the budget for it and rather would ask my wife to move to India.

what i can say. Just wait for appeal outcome.

solomonsunder wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 10, 2017 5:22 pm

Just an update:

I searched for jobs in Malta and found one that would sponsor me for a work permit. They invited me for a final interview in Malta and suggested I apply for an interview visa. However, the Maltese rejected even this application under the clause 'intention to leave territory before expiry of visa could not be ascertained'.
This is despite me booking a flight from India which does not land in any other EU country en route as suggested by the company. The company had even suggested them to provide at least a limited territory visa. However, in their refusal, they mentioned that they were advised to refuse it by other EU Embassies.

As for the appeals, it has been more than 2 months, but the standard reply is that they are creating a case report and it is pending with the Central Visa Unit.

Could it be that me mailing to the EU Commission made them want to withhold the visa? And does getting a lawyer help by any means? They seem to charge heavily and if it is going to take n number of court appearings, we don't have the budget for it and rather would ask my wife to move to India.

The only advice İ can give is based on my experience and it doesn't mean that your experince will be the same. We paid 600 euro for the lawyer. It was a waste of money but when you are desperate you will do anything you think will help the situation. You need to be aware that the appeals system has no time limit, they meet once a week, so be prepared to wait. As i said before the EU has no uniform appeals system, each country deals with it differently.
İt took about 4 months for the EC to help me out. A long time when you are in the situation but looking at other problems people have its probably not that long. I have given all the details of who i contacted in my previous posts. Do the same and just wait for a result. Good luck

charmender wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:34 am

The only advice İ can give is based on my experience and it doesn't mean that your experince will be the same. We paid 600 euro for the lawyer. It was a waste of money but when you are desperate you will do anything you think will help the situation. You need to be aware that the appeals system has no time limit, they meet once a week, so be prepared to wait. As i said before the EU has no uniform appeals system, each country deals with it differently.
İt took about 4 months for the EC to help me out. A long time when you are in the situation but looking at other problems people have its probably not that long. I have given all the details of who i contacted in my previous posts. Do the same and just wait for a result. Good luck

The appeals board rejected it as well

This is what they have mentioned:

The Central Visa Unit's concerns, which are explained very clearly, are principally that the appellant claimed to be married to an Austrian national and whereas this marriage is most likely legally valid, its scope was to confer freedom of movement upon the appellant, who as a third country national would not normally have freedom of movement within the Schengen Area. Furthermore, according to Austrian law, a marriage between a national of a member state and a third country national only confers freedom of movement upon the latter after the EU national in question reaches the age of twenty-one years. In this case, the appellant's wife is only nineteen years old. As a result, the granting of a visa by Malta would have the result of allowing the appellant to circumvent Austrian law.

We didn't see the age law anywhere on the EU rules and since Surinder Singh is allowed, I thought we should be fine since we were not even going to live in Austria. The EC didn't respond at all to any mails other than sending some fixed template so far. Do you think my wife's age is the only issue here or they simply think that the marriage is fake? My wife suggested that we might have a better chance once she is 21 while I think moving to EU won't work out and we can live together only in India since Austria requires I know German before applying for a family reunification visa which is simply impossible to achieve.

solomonsunder wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:59 am

As a result, the granting of a visa by Malta would have the result of allowing the appellant to circumvent Austrian law.

The applicant is not subject to austrian law in Malta.
You could ask if the state of Malta recognise visa handbook C(2010) 1620 final part III.
https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites ... ted_en.pdf

The procedure for a refusal is defined in part III section 3.8.

Beside that COM(2009) 313 final, section 4

"Community law promotes the mobility of EU citizens and protects those who have made use of it [57]. There is no abuse where EU citizens and their family members obtain a right of residence under Community law in a Member State other than that of the EU citizen’s nationality as they are benefiting from an advantage inherent in the exercise of the right of free movement protected by the Treaty[58], regardless of the purpose of their move to that State[59]. By the same token, Community law protects EU citizens who return home after having exercised their free movement rights."

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ ... 2009DC0313

mgb wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2017 5:17 pm

Beside that COM(2009) 313 final, section 4

"Community law promotes the mobility of EU citizens and protects those who have made use of it [57]. There is no abuse where EU citizens and their family members obtain a right of residence under Community law in a Member State other than that of the EU citizen’s nationality as they are benefiting from an advantage inherent in the exercise of the right of free movement protected by the Treaty[58], regardless of the purpose of their move to that State[59]. By the same token, Community law protects EU citizens who return home after having exercised their free movement rights."

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ ... 2009DC0313

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/citizen/fil ... 284_en.pdf

Actually, the new handbook is the above one I think. And most probably they are using the other forms of abuse category.

4.3. Other forms of abuse

'Abuse could also occur when EU citizens, unable to be joined by their third country family members in their Member State of origin because of the application of national immigration rules preventing it, move to another Member State with the sole purpose to evade, upon returning to their home Member State, the national law that frustrated their family reunification efforts, invoking their rights under Community law.'

They think our plan is to move back to Austria I think. Nevertheless, I think we have a better case once my wife is 21.

Section 4.3 could only be used from the home country of the eu citizen and not from any other eu country.

Look also at:

If, in a concrete case of return, the use of Community rights was genuine and effective, the Member State of origin should not inquire into the personal motives that triggered the previous move.

The theme of the linked COM(2014) 604 final is marriage of convenience.

mgb wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:05 am

Section 4.3 could only be used from the home country of the eu citizen and not from any other eu country.

Look also at:

If, in a concrete case of return, the use of Community rights was genuine and effective, the Member State of origin should not inquire into the personal motives that triggered the previous move.

The theme of the linked COM(2014) 604 final is marriage of convenience.

Any idea how one can appeal against the decision of the appeals board? The appeals board clerk said one can't raise an appeal against an appeal.

I guess the cheapest way is to start with a new visa application and refer in writing to visa handbook C(2010) 1620 final part III.
Additional you can file a complaint with the eu commision.
https://ec.europa.eu/assets/sg/report-a ... laints_en/