Immigrationboards.com

dsab85 · Member of Standing Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 200

Hello,

my wifes EU1 application is now slighlty over 6 months old. Today she called Immigration, and they told her that they are not able to process them within the legal 6 months frame anymore. According to them she will have to wait for another 1 - 2 months.

Anybody have an idea what we could do now? This is really frustrating.

Best Regards,
Daniel

Directive/2004/38/EC · Guru Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 2078 Location: EU

I suggest you read over some of the earlier postings to this board about this same topic.

One of them is http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=11898

robby1 · Junior Member Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 43

hi dsab ,
i have have same situation aswell i am too slightly more then 6 months ,as they have written on the top of eu1 application form that application will be proceed not longer then 6 months ,but when i rang them exect on the day after 6 months they said that decsion has not been thaken yet on ur application ,there is backlog on all these application and they can't process in given time...and thats for all applications coz huge number of application they are receiving ..
don't have any idea what to do...have to wait more .have no other choice...if u get any reply ,plz inform to d others aswell... thanks

Mikael · Junior Member Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 16

Hi Daniel!
Do not worry. I am exactly in the same situation. Apparently it is imposible now to comply with the legal 6 months. That is what they have told me every time I call.
I am now in the month number 7 waiting for the postman to bring my envelope with the decision.
I feel really frustrated. I have never imagined that this will take so long. It is so depressing and the worst thing is that there is nobody able to help.
What I did personally was to go for advice to the Immigration Council of Ireland and they told me that what we can do is to send a complain to SOLVIT and to the European commision informing them that the Irish Autorithies are not respecting the time frame. Maybe I will do that but honestly I do not think that will be very helpful.
All the best and good luck.
Mikael

Directive/2004/38/EC · Guru Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 2078 Location: EU

dsab85 · Member of Standing Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 200

opened another thread, but thought I would put it in here as well ...

I just called the EU Treaty right Section to follow up on my wifes EU1 application (over 6 months already), and the woman on the phone dropped a bombshell.

She said the EU Treaty Rights Section has been taken to court regarding the EU1 application, and until the Court Case has been settled they won't send out any Notifications (be it positive or negative).

Anyone know any more about this?

Dawie · Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:09 pm Post subject:

I think 6 months is way to long. The EU should have put a limit of 6 days to sort these applications out. How can they possibly justify taking 6 months to sort out a straightforward application?

I can only imagine that it is deliberate foot-dragging on the part of an Irish government desperate to do something to show it is dealing with the "immigrant problem".
_________________
In a few years time we'll look back on immigration control like we look back on American prohibition in the thirties - futile and counter-productive.

robby1 · Junior Member Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 43

got registered envelope from dep of justice dublin yesterday morning after submmiting my application allmost 6 months and 3 week , but still good have it now, i have got 5 years alltogather, hope other guys will get their letters soon ! and good thing is that i don't need any irish re-entry visa from dublin , just have to show my residence card every time on airpotrs ....

archigabe · Moderator Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 1321 Location: Dublin

thanks for letting everyone know,robby1.I am now in my 5th month and was gettiing worried that they had stopped issuing residency cards because of the lawsuit.

dsab85 · Member of Standing Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 200

Thanks for letting us know, robby. So hopefully they just told me a lie (probably only time to be happy to be lied to).

We are now just about 6 months and 3 weeks, and if they are in fact working on it in chronological order, then we should be due a letter any day now.

dsab85 · Member of Standing Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 200

Hello,

today I got a response from SOLVIT, and there really seems to be a court case:

I have contacted the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in
relation to your problem with the application for your spouse, Ms.
XXX and her Irish residency application under Directive 2004/38/EC.
I am in the initial stages of answering your query but I thought I would
give you an update as far as I understand it.

The Department of Justice are waiting for an Irish court case ruling with
regard to the Irish legislation transposing Directive 2004/38/EC and until
then the Department can not comment on applications already received.
Unfortunately, I am not sure when the judicial decision is due. I have
provided a link to the Irish legislation and the Statutory Instrument
governing the area - S.I. No. 656 of 2006. The problem appears to lie, as
far as I am aware, with regulation 3. (2) of S.I No. 656 of 2006:

Application and transitional provisions

3. (1) These Regulations shall apply to -
(a) Union citizens,
(b) subject to paragraph (2), qualifying family members of Union citizens
who are not themselves Union citizens, and
(c) subject to paragraph (2), permitted family members of Union citizens.

(2) These Regulations shall not apply to a family member unless the family member is lawfully resident in another Member State and is -

(a) seeking to enter the State in the company of a Union citizen in respect
of whom he or she is a family member, or
(b) seeking to join a Union citizen, in respect of whom he or she is a
family member, who is lawfully present in the State.

http://www.justice.ie/80256E010039E882/vWeb/flJUSQ6WNDTU-en/$File/SI656of2006.pdf

dsab85 · Member of Standing Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 200

Hello Robby,

were you/or your wife (whoever applied for the Residence permit) lawfully resident in another EU memberstate before you/she came to Ireland?

Cheers,
DSAB

zen63 · Member Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 65

dsab85 - we were in the same situation in that my wife did not live in the EU prior to us getting married, nor did we marry in the EU.

We received a years residence card at the end of last year and are currently working with solvit to get this upgraded to a full 5 year card which will function as a reentry visa.

I will keep posting the information that we get from SOLVIT, but after a short holiday next week, I will be bringing the dept/jus to the Irish Ombudsman and starting a complaint against the Irish Gov in the European Commission.

Please keep us all updated on your progress, and i will do the same,

Thanks,

Zen

brownbonno · Member of Standing Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 163

Its not surprising that Ireland goverment is taking to court for not adhering to the rules/directives of the EU.These are pieces of directives which she signed into her national laws.
Here is an interesting link to EU parliament regarding Ireland failures in implementing the Directives-

www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/commissions/peti/communication/2007/369991/PETI_CM(2007)369991_EN.doc

robby1 · Junior Member Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 43

hi dsab,
my wife is from eastern europe and i am non eu member of the family , i was living in ireland legally 2 year before i got my first year stamp direct from local immigration office in sep2005 and and now i've got rest for 5 years .. thanks

jack_in_the box · Junior Member Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 35

Is anybody able to get through to the Justice Dept by phone?
1890551500 option 3 & 3?
I have been calling every monday, wednesday & friday for the past month & I just can't get through to them.

Been 7 months now & still no letter from them. I've been living in Ireland for 6 years & my EU member wife for even longer. You'd think this wouldn't be a problem!

dsab85 · Member of Standing Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 200

Surprisingly I talked to one of their people today. Had to dial about 30 times, but finally got through.

I got a call from one of their people on Friday regarding my wifes application, and just wanted to follow up on that call. Unfortunately he was not available, but the lady on the phone checked on the status of our application. According to her it is worked on, but no response has been sent out yet. She sent an email to her colleague (who called me on friday) and asked him to call me back today. Hope that will happen.

He told me on friday as well that the court case is causing problems with the processing of some of the applications.

We are now waiting for almost 7 months and 3 weeks. I really hope the wait will be over soon.

jack_in_the box · Junior Member Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 35

I just don't get how they can take so long - I don't think they care that they are messing with people's lives!
How does the court case effect people's application. Surely they need to keep processing by whatever the EU law says?
dsab85 - were you and your wife resident in Ireland before getting married?

dsab85 · Member of Standing Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 200

I have been living in Ireland for more then 6 years. My wife wasn't living here (or in any other EU country) before.

Yeah, 8 months is an awful long time. My wife is pretty unhappy. She missed the wedding of her best friend, might miss the christening of my nephew (where she is supposed to be the godmother) next month, we couldn't home for XMAS, we couldn't go on honeymoon yet and most depressingly she cannot work. She has never been out of work since she finished her Master Degree, and she is desperate to get to work.

jack_in_the box · Junior Member Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 35

Absolutely Crazy! Have you thought about getting your passports back? We managed to get ours back, the day before my appointment for another visa application. Wasn't easy though....about 2 registered letter, 15 phone calls, faxes & emails.....But eventually we got them back. At least we were able to travel.
If I may ask - what EU country are you from? Are you able to travel on an ID card of sorts?