EEA4 Permanent Residence - Waiting time

[biggiesmall]

Just a quick update on my previous posts in this thread .....

Yesterday, after 8 months and 16 days, I finally received the Permanent Residency for my wife. I am convinced that the action to my MP was decisive, since shortly after I received confirmation that he had written to the Head of UKBA, a case worker was allocated (4th May), additional info was requested (8 May), additional info was sent (12 may), Residency was awarded (20 May as per passport), passport was received (6 June).

Cheers. Eric
______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

How you doing Eric?congrats on the PR.Can you pls send me the copies of your complains to HO.I submitted my application last year september and did made a complain in April but never heard any reply and my solicitor is just useless.Can you pls mail me the complain letters on tunjo1974@hotmail.co.uk.

Cheers.

[Eric-Poole]

To Biggiesmall,

Try this as a way to raise awareness that by not processing your application within the legal framework defined in EU Directive 2004/58/EC , UKBA is simply BREAKING the LAW !!!

[quote]Dear Sirs,

I inform you that you are currently in breach of Directive 2004/58/EC Article 10 which states:

“The right of residence of family members of a Union citizen who are not nationals of a Member State shall be evidenced by the issuing of a document called “Residence Card of a family member of a European Citizenâ€

[Eric-Poole]

Here is an example of letter that was sent to my MP:

"Subjet: Serious Breach of EU directive 2004/58/EC

Dear Mr _____,

I would like to report to your attention a serious issue of breach of EU law with regards to the processing of residency application for EEA citizen. EU Directive 2004/58/EC translated into the Immigration Act (EEA) 2006, is very specific and requires that such application be processed no later than 6 months after the application date. In my case, xx months after submitting the application, I still have no idea when my application will be processed. I am not an isolated case and on the different immigration forums on the internet, many people are complaining about the lengthy delays which can take over a year.

Since I submitted my application, I have received no information except a letter confirming receipt of the application and telling us not to contact. I tried on several occasions to get a completion date for the application particularly toward the end of the legal timeframe. Letters are simply being ignored until a complaint is raised in which case all I received is yet a standard apology letter for not answering and telling me that they are too busy removing foreign prisoner (see letter attached), but no useful info about my case.

This is an endemic problem and the UK government is casually disregarding EU law at the distress of people who are becoming prisoner of this country (passport and other official documents are being withheld for the whole duration of the application). <<<< I hereby explain a case where we had family problems and were unable to live the country >>>>

I have been in the UK for xx years and have always worked and paid my taxes like any other UK citizen. I really feel betrayed by the UK government and find it totally UNACCEPTABLE that organizations like the UK Border Agency are putting themselves above the law. Incompetence is certainly not an acceptable excuse, and I am therefore referring the matter to you, hoping that you will be able to do something to change this situation.

Yours sincerely,"

I hope this helps. Cheers.

Eric

______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

[biggiesmall]

Here is an example of letter that was sent to my MP:

"Subjet: Serious Breach of EU directive 2004/58/EC

Dear Mr _____,

I would like to report to your attention a serious issue of breach of EU law with regards to the processing of residency application for EEA citizen. EU Directive 2004/58/EC translated into the Immigration Act (EEA) 2006, is very specific and requires that such application be processed no later than 6 months after the application date. In my case, xx months after submitting the application, I still have no idea when my application will be processed. I am not an isolated case and on the different immigration forums on the internet, many people are complaining about the lengthy delays which can take over a year.

Since I submitted my application, I have received no information except a letter confirming receipt of the application and telling us not to contact. I tried on several occasions to get a completion date for the application particularly toward the end of the legal timeframe. Letters are simply being ignored until a complaint is raised in which case all I received is yet a standard apology letter for not answering and telling me that they are too busy removing foreign prisoner (see letter attached), but no useful info about my case.

This is an endemic problem and the UK government is casually disregarding EU law at the distress of people who are becoming prisoner of this country (passport and other official documents are being withheld for the whole duration of the application). <<<< I hereby explain a case where we had family problems and were unable to live the country >>>>

I have been in the UK for xx years and have always worked and paid my taxes like any other UK citizen. I really feel betrayed by the UK government and find it totally UNACCEPTABLE that organizations like the UK Border Agency are putting themselves above the law. Incompetence is certainly not an acceptable excuse, and I am therefore referring the matter to you, hoping that you will be able to do something to change this situation.

Yours sincerely,"

I hope this helps. Cheers.

Eric

______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

Thanks Eric,really appreciate it.

[suparka]

Hi,

I submitted my PR application form 6 months ago. I phoned HO a week ago and today.

I got two different answers:
The first one said that applications will take 6-8 months to complete.
The second one said it could take up to 11 months.

Since they have to make a decision within 6 months, can this be enforced somehow?

I hired a solicitor to handle my case, he does not seem to be doing anything proactively.

What is the point in hiring solicitors if the legal requirement (6 month response)is not enforceable?

Thanks

Did the solicitor promise he would firsten the process? I thought solicitor's work is to guide you in application process rather than manage your application! am i right?

Hi,

The solicitor didn't promise anything. He is managing my application, but it seems I am just wasting my money. I am sending all the complaints letters, etc.

I also received a letter from UKBA on the 5th May, then another one asking for further documents on the 11th May. The passport was sent on the 12th May. Still nothing!!!

I called them few times, and they said that applications last up to 12 months!!

Not to mention that they cut their line opening time by 4 hours.

Good luck to everyone...

Can people claim liquidated damages?? There must be a way to, not to penalise, but incentivise the Home Office.

Perhaps, they should offer to process further citizenship applications for free + accept applications a year after the 6 months breach.

Some thoughts...

[Eric-Poole]

Why not write to your MEP ?... there a whole bunch of newly elected, who should be interested to address breach of EU directives. Avoid the 2 from the BNP !!

Cheers. Eric


______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

[suparka]

Why not write to your MEP ?... there a whole bunch of newly elected, who should be interested to address breach of EU directives. Avoid the 2 from the BNP !!

Cheers. Eric


______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

good point! I am onto this... Just written to the Customer Signpost Service..

[suparka]

What a coincidence...

Following all the letters written to HO and MEP on Thursday night, I received a Special Delivery note on Fri. On Sat, I found out that I have finally received the Permanent Residence! It took a while...

Good luck to everyone! I'll post reply from Signpost Service if relevant to other people, and continue monitoring these posts. Thanks for all the advice Eric-Poole.

[suparka]

What a coincidence...

Following all the letters written to HO and MEP on Thursday night, I received a Special Delivery note on Fri. On Sat, I found out that I have finally received the Permanent Residence! It took a while...

Good luck to everyone! I'll post reply from Signpost Service if relevant to other people, and continue monitoring these posts. Thanks for all the advice Eric-Poole.

[suparka]

What a coincidence...

Following all the letters written to HO and MEP on Thursday night, I received a Special Delivery note on Fri. On Sat, I found out that I have finally received the Permanent Residence! It took a while...

Good luck to everyone! I'll post reply from Signpost Service if relevant to other people, and continue monitoring these posts. Thanks for all the advice Eric-Poole.

[suparka]

What a coincidence...

Following all the letters written to HO and MEP on Thursday night, I received a Special Delivery note on Fri. On Sat, I found out that I have finally received the Permanent Residence! It took a while...

Good luck to everyone! I'll post reply from Signpost Service if relevant to other people, and continue monitoring these posts. Thanks for all the advice Eric-Poole.

[Chirurgie]

Thank you for the advice about writing to your MP and all the drafts you have provided. I will indeed do the same and report on it's progress.

Current status is after application back in July 2008, I have yet to hear anything back other than initial letter acknowledging receipt of passports. It will now be 1 year in a few week's time

[zobir]

Hello all,I am new to this forum :( ,well I am like every body waiting for my PR,it will be 8months in few days,I am very stress but there is nothing that I can do,I didn't want to call the UKB for the only reason that they will not process the application and the call will not make any difference,the only thing that I did is to wrote to my local MP,and the answer was after all most 2weeks waiting, :lol: was that she contact the UKB and she will let me now what happening in Liverpool,what I can say is that they are rely busy and they got lot of applications,but I don't understand something how some people got them PR after between 6to8months and some people got it just after 6months and the rest is between 12to13 months if anyone can answer my question,
good luck for everyone

[zobir]

[quote="suparka"]What a coincidence...

Following all the letters written to HO and MEP on Thursday night, I received a Special Delivery note on Fri. On Sat, I found out that I have finally received the Permanent Residence! It took a while...

Good luck to everyone! I'll post reply from Signpost Service if relevant to other people, and continue monitoring these posts. Thanks for all the advice Eric-Poole.[/quote

Well done

[Eric-Poole]

Hi Zobir,

You asked why some people are waiting 1+ years and others get their PR after 6 to 8 months. The answer is very simple, if you make a lot of noise, you will get UKBA's attention and your application will be processed faster.

Do not forget that every time that you complain, it creates more work and costs money to UKBA. If you send a printed letter, somebody will have to open the envelope, extract the content and scan the letter even if this is only for archive purpose. They will eventually have to allocate somebody to read the letter and respond. If you keep repeating your complaint until you get a response you are increasing their workflow and operating cost, this gets even worse each time that you escalate the matter. The outcome: if you quietly wait for your file to be processed, you can get prepared for a long wait. If you keep complaining, they will try to expedite your case.

Do not forget that as spouse of EEA member if you meet the directive criteria you have a RIGHT of residence. They have 6 months to process. After 6 months they are in breach of EU law. Use this to your advantage, keep repeating to them that they are breaking the law, resend your complaints until your gets a response (this create more load), escalate the complaint to different complaints department (increases the load even further), use multiple channels (Liverpool, Complaints units, MP, MEP, your consulate, solve-it).

Here is a link to the procedure which I used:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... ht=#260619

I hope this helps. Eric

______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

[biggiesmall]

i need advice please.How can i ask the HO to stop sending correspondence to my solicitor?I did applied for PR on september 2008 and send complain letters to HO after the 6months lapsed and my solicitor did not to do anything when i complained to him that i havent heard anything from HO yet.I got through to HO today and was told they sent a letter on may 18th asking for more documents and i did tell the woman i spoke to that my solicitor didnt recieve any letter and she told me to get in touch with my solicitor to write a letter to HO that he didnt receive letter cos the 21days of requirement of documents has lapsed.I got in touch with my solicitor just now and he told me he did not recieve any letter from HO and the lazy bastard is asking me more money to write a letter to HO.Can someone pls advice me how i can take over from my solicitor?Thanks

[Eric-Poole]

To biggiesmall:

- go to post office a pick some recorded forms (Orange)
- write a letter to HO - Add a mention in RED that this is a recorded letter and put the record number for the form that you will use.
- request confirmation of completion from HO. Give them 5 working days to comply.

- if you do not receive any response after 5 woking days, reprint your letter. Indicate in large font " REMINDER - ACTION REQUIRED - 5 DAYS TO COMPLY"

- if you don't get a response to your reminder, fax your reminder letter to Liverpool Complaints units + the one from the region where you live.

-if you still do not get a response, fax all your letters to all complaints units, with a header page reading " ACTION REQUIRED" with a massive font like "IMPACT size 100"

- repeat until you get a response, I used this on many occasion and they will respond eventually.

I hope this helps. Eric

______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

[biggiesmall]

To biggiesmall:

- go to post office a pick some recorded forms (Orange)
- write a letter to HO - Add a mention in RED that this is a recorded letter and put the record number for the form that you will use.
- request confirmation of completion from HO. Give them 5 working days to comply.

- if you do not receive any response after 5 woking days, reprint your letter. Indicate in large font " REMINDER - ACTION REQUIRED - 5 DAYS TO COMPLY"

- if you don't get a response to your reminder, fax your reminder letter to Liverpool Complaints units + the one from the region where you live.

-if you still do not get a response, fax all your letters to all complaints units, with a header page reading " ACTION REQUIRED" with a massive font like "IMPACT size 100"

- repeat until you get a response, I used this on many occasion and they will respond eventually.

I hope this helps. Eric

______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:

Thanks Eric, i did get a reply from HO today that more documents were asked for in a letter they sent on may 18 but lazy solicitor never receive the letter.Just want to know the procedure i can use to take over from my soilicitor.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

[zobir]

Hello Biggie Small,well the only advise that I can give you,and in my point there is no sense to make a solicitor they are all the same,ones they take your money they will not be doing anything,in my point the solicitor doesn't make any difference on the process of your application,and is always and better to do everything on you own,all the document that you gave to your solicitor,he put them on recorded letter and sent them to Liverpool and everyone can do it,so you can start to deal with the UKB by your own and if your English is not that good ask a friend to write a letter for you or go on the Internet you will definitely find a good example,and if you stay with this solicitor will loose a lot of money.

[zobir]

Hello Eric,thank you for your help,I always like your ideas since I've been looking to this forum,thank you for advising all the applican what you've been writing,your were making a sence,but to answer what you said to me about the wating time is maybe wrong because I have a friend that he's still waiting for the periode of 12months and he's made atleast 10 complain to evryone (UKB,MP) and no result how can you explain me that,one question what the MEP?and after sendind a second letter to my MP,she told me that it take 4to6 weeks to have a answer from the UKB I couldn't realy believe her,well wait and we will see.

[Eric-Poole]

Hi Zobir,

MEP is the Member of European Parliament. Since MEPs ratified Directive/2004/38/EC, they should really be receptive of any breach of it, particularly by their own government.

To find your MP/MEP try the following website:
http://www.writetothem.com/

There are several aspects on which you may also play. Since UKBA is now promising same day processing in Croydon, you could send a complaint letter stating that since the legal timeframe to process your application is overdue and they are clearly in Breach of Directive/2004/38/EC article 10, you formally request them to supply a date for an appointment for same day delivery of the Residency Permit. Of course since UKBA did not fulfil their legal duties, the appointment shall be Free of Charge !!

Another way of protest, which I had considered was to write to my Local Council and inform them that since the UK government is totally disregarding EU law, as a EU citizen, I would be disregarding any UK tax requirement and freeze any council tax payment until my case is resolved. I would however recommend to use this as a last measure, but it is a good way to make a point that the UK government has a duty to respect people's rights whether they are British or not.

I hope this helps. Cheers. Eric


______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

[Chirurgie]

Why not write to your MEP ?... there a whole bunch of newly elected, who should be interested to address breach of EU directives. Avoid the 2 from the BNP !!

Cheers. Eric
______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

Eric, I took your advice and wrote to my MP on 6th of July via email. I used the draft that has been posted here.

I did not (and still have not) heard back from him. Following day on 7th of July, I emailed a similiar (but modified accordingly) complaint letter to UKBA European Enquiries (email UKBAeuropeanenquiries@ukba.gsi.gov.uk )

Today (10th of July) I received a letter today (dated 7th of July) from UKBA LCCW (Liverpool Charged Casework WorkFlow) office apologising for the time taken and sorry that I felt it necessary to complain (!). They gave usual spiel about 'resources engaged in removing foreign national prisoners and moving from Crydon to Liverpool.

Anyhow, the important thing is they say that my application has now been allocated to a caseworker for action and I will be contacted if any further information/documentation required. That is PROGRESS!!!

I am now hopeful that this will be resolved shortly. For the record, I submitted my application on 22nd July 2008! So it will be a year in less than 2 week's time..

I think it was the latter email to UKBA European Enquiries that did it but it is possible the MP has contacted them as well though UKBA's reply within a day of my emailing MP and on same day I emailed them makes it more likely my MP has not gotten involved (or perhaps is waiting for UKBA's reply before letting me know).

Anyhow, a big thank you to Eric and I will indeed keep everyone here notified of my progress.

Summary as such:
22nd July 2008: EEA4 application entered on Home Office Database
August 2008: received certification of application (unsure exact date as letter misplaced!)
6th July 2009: Emailed my MP (no replies yet)
7th July 2009: Emailed UKBA European Enquiries
10th July 2009: Received letter apologising for my complaint of time taken and stated Caseworker allocation for action.

[Eric-Poole]

Hello Chirurgie,

This pathetic letter about removing foreing prisoner means nothing. I received this letter about 3 or 4 times during the process. Your case will only move forward once a "case worker" has been appointed.

You should respond to the letter that you received by stating that their response has nothing to do with your case, and does not bring any insight about WHEN YOUR case will be resolved, you therefore require within 5 working days the name of the appointed case worker and a committed date to complete your application. Remind them that processing applications within 6 months is a legal requirement under EU directive 58 Article 10, and it is totally unacceptable that you did not receive any communication on your case for almost a year, or that a case worker has even been appointed after almost a year.

If they aren't able to get your case completed by the end of July, I suggest that you request, a same day apppointment at their Croydon office under the new procedure. In view of the unacceptable delays that you had to suffer, this appointment shall be made FREE of charge.

I hope this helps. Cheers.

Eric

______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

[Chirurgie]

Hello Chirurgie,

This pathetic letter about removing foreing prisoner means nothing. I received this letter about 3 or 4 times during the process. Your case will only move forward once a "case worker" has been appointed.
______________________
Act on EEA residency application delays by signing the petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EEA4-Residency/

Thanks Eric but I have stated above that the 2nd paragraph says that a caseworker has been appointed for me and will get in touch if any info required.

[Tanukiji]

I have found this forum very helpful. I have followed advice many have posted and would like to just share my experience.

EEA4 application on basis of 5 year marriage to EEA national.

09/10/2009: EEA3 & EEA4 applications posted to Liverpool by Special Delivery
30/10/2009: Received COA
23/05/2009: Sent a complaint email to NWCSU@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
26/05/2009: Received apology letter which also said I will hear from my caseworker shortly
15/06/2009: Received letter requesting husband's recent payslips
17/06/2009: Documents sent to the Liverpool by Special Delivery
03/07/2009: PR permits + all docs received - permit stamp dated 23/06/2009

I believe the complaint email got the ball rolling in my case.

Good luck everyone who's still waiting.