EEA Family Permit - Two Lingering Questions

[hellrose]

My husband is German and I am Canadian, and I will be applying for the Family Permit in the next few weeks. I think I figured out most of the questions I had through reading these boards (thank you so much!) but I have two lingering questions ..

1. My husband has gone ahead to UK to register his business (he is self-employed) and start looking for accommodation. If I apply before an accommodation has been set (i.e. he is staying at a hotel), do I need to be travelling with him?

2. The form asks for previous passports as part of the supporting documents. I haven't kept my previous passports and only have my current one. I plan to write a letter explaining that I don't have it, will that be a problem?

These may seem like small questions compared to the complex challenges others are facing, but every little detail seems like a potential land-mine for me at the moment.
Thank you in advance!

[Rolfus]

As I understand the rules the answers are:

1) No problem. When you make your application for an EEA permit state you are joining your husband rather than travelling with him (there is a question on the form), and carry with you proof that he is actually in the UK when you travel.

2) This request has no basis in law, it is part of UKBA's broad examination of the circumstances, so you should have no problem.

Good luck!

[hellrose]

Thanks Rolfus!

I'll post an update once it goes through... and then I'm sure I'll have questions for EEA1/EEA2

[hellrose]

I have one more question for the EEA experts, thanks in advance again.

Section 8.9 of the form: http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/resources/en/ ... 03073/vaf5

It asks where we plan to live in the UK and then it asks for details on the property. If our accommodation hasn't been set yet, what should I be filling in here?
The questions are:

1. Where do you and the EEA National plan to live in the UK?
2. Does the EEA National own this property?
3. If No, on what basis does the EEA National occupy this property e.g. rented, owned by a parent, company property
4. How many bedrooms are there in the property?
etc.

[86ti]

All that is required for an EEA FP is passports/IDs and documents proving the relationship, e.g. marriage certificate (properly certified and translated if needed). If the EEA national is a qualified person, which (s)he has to be after an initial period of three months in the UK, financial "activity", e.g. income through work, must be shown and, in principle, also residence. See also the EUN and the EEA Regulations 2006 (in particular sections 12-14)which should answer all your questions (please have a good read through those pages). There is, however, no legal basis to ask for details of accommodation.

[hellrose]

Thank you 86ti

As it turns out the actual online application doesn't ask these questions (that the PDF version of the form had) so it wasn't a problem. Even if legally they don't need to know, it still would've felt awkward to not answer questions that are asked!

Online application's been submitted, appointment is on March 16th.
We're now in the process of gathering all the supporting documents.
Wish us luck!

[hellrose]

I received an email today telling me that my VISA has been issued.
I am overjoyed, it only took a total of 2 business days - 1 day for the documents to get to Ottawa and 1 day for them to process!! (And this after they told me they were backlogged and were seeing longer processing times than usual.) The documents are on their way back now.

I want to leave a record of everything so that it may help others that are in my situation. (Note that I am a Canadian citizen but was born in South Korea, my husband is German.)

I applied through the limited-services Vancouver office.
After applying online, they asked me to make an in-person appointment.
The appointment took place at their office downtown Vancouver, they don't ask you any interview questions or anything. The clerk just made sure that the application was filled out properly, attached my passport photo to the application and we put everything in a DHL envelope. I had to pay a DHL shipping fee for the documents to get sent to Ottawa. (You can arrange to ship the documents on your own but they have a DHL drop box right there in the office so I think it's the safest. It cost me $45 because my stack of documents were over 1lb. Otherwise it's a little cheaper.)

I included the following support documents in addition to my husband's sponsor letter and my cover letter:

1. VAF5 Application Form
2. Marriage Certificate
3. My Passport
4. Husband's Passport - Notarized Copy
5. My Birth Certificate in Korean
6. My Birth Certificate Translation
7. My Citizenship Card
8. Husband's Birth Registration German
9. Husband's Birth Registration Translation
10. Husband's HSBC Savings Account Recent Statement
11. Husband's HSBC Chequing Account Recent Statement
12. Husband's BHF Bank Account Recent Statement
13. Husband's RRSP Account Statements
14. Husband's Stock Account Statements
15. Husband's Pay Slips
16. My RRSP Contribution Receipts
17. My Chequing Account Recent Statement
18. My Pay Slips
19. Letter of support from my mother
20. Letter of support from my father
21. Letter of support from husband's parents
22. Select email correspondence
23. Photographs from over the course of our relationship
24. Photographs from our marriage ceremony
25. Certificate of Incorporation of a Private Limited Company in London (we are starting a company in London)

I labeled everything with tabbed post-its and noted every little thing I felt was missing or lacking (i.e. I didn't have RRSP receipts for all tax years, and only had 2 email conversations to show because we communicate primarily in person or by SMS). I used paper clips and large binder clips to keep the documents together - I avoided binding the documents with staples and avoided cover slips because I figured it would be annoying. I also included a second set of all documents because one of the guides said to include copies for all original documents. Documents in foreign languages were translated (use this website http://www.stibc.org/ to find a translator in your language.)

The processing office sent me an email when the documents arrived in Ottawa. I received another email the day after telling me that the VISA was issued - needless to say I was very pleasantly surprised because they said it could take up to 15 business days.

Hope this helps someone else applying from Canada.
Good luck!

[Rolfus]

Congratulations!

[fysicus]

Congratulations on your EEA FP, but I think you went far over the top with your supporting documents (may be because the VAF5 form is also way over the top with asking for irrelevant details).
I would say that at least items 5-15 and 17-22 from your list are probably all redundant. See also the earlier post by 86ti about what is actually needed.

[hellrose]

You're right fysicus, I just could not afford to take any chances what so ever and I had the documents so I thought why not.

Still, good for others to know they don't need so much.