Post
by Toebs » Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:57 pm
Hi everyone.
I made an FBR application a bit less than three years ago, November 2016.
After two years, it was rejected, with a two-word explanation, "documentation problem".
I wanted to find out more, but this was not possible; no one would say anything more.
A next step after a rejection is to appeal. I wanted to find out what the problem was, so I could fix it, but that's now how the appeal process works. The appeal process is purely a re-run of the application, except it goes to a "more senior" officer, and they make a second decision.
If that doesn't work, you then write to the minister, if that doesn't work, then you go to court.
I issued the appeal, having been told it would take two or three months. It's been a year since I started the appeal. I chased it up in March this year, and never heard back. I chased again in late June, and never heard back. I chased again today, and I was told *today* on the phone appeals can easily take three years, as there is only one person handling them, with a huge backlog.
No information can be given about where you are in the queue, or how long recent appeals have taken - you have absolutely no clue how much longer you might wait. ("I could find out, but I can't tell you, it's against policy. Go and look at our T&C on the web-site.", which is insane. This is not an intelligence agency and this is not secret information.)
I actually have an idea why the original application took so long; it is because my Irish grandfather abused his daughters and was ostracised from the family. I never met him or knew him, and so the application was based on documentation only, and this meant there were *two* Irish men who could have been the grandfather - same name, fathers with the same name, correct birth year, etc. (Be clear - both were Irish. There were no possible English grandfathers.)
I submitted the full set of certificates (birth, marriage, etc) and explained the situation in a covering letter. I understand this was problematic for the FBR process; I should have said nothing, and only submitted the documentation for one of the men (the one who was by his profession and that of his father more likely to be the man).
The application was made in Berlin, and the embassy was fine with it - they granted the application, but apparently it then has to be confirmed in Ireland, and it was at this point it all slowed to a halt and was finally rejected.
So, this brings me to my current questions.
I want to get this done in a timely manner. I expect the appeal process to fail.
I asked on the phone if I could cancel the current application and submit a new application. The chap on the phone told me they could certainly cancel the application. I said yes, I know that, but what I want to know is if I can then make a *new* application.
He said yes. I asked for actual formal confirmation of this. Apparently, this cannot be given. I have to just take his word for it. In my experience, what people on first line support tell you is never true.
I asked also if a new application would be linked to, or its processing affected by, the original application. The answer was "it depends on the case officer". So it might be he just looks at the first case, sees it was refused, and does the same and that's it.
Has anyone here cancelled an FBR application and then made it again?
Apparently current applications are taking a year to process; they're currently handling August 2018 (apparently he *could* tell me this - it's not against policy). This I suspect will be faster than waiting for the current appeal process.
So, as you can imagine, what I'm thinking now is about going to court, because the bureaucratic process seems so completely buggered up that it's just not working.
Does anyone have any experience or information about how you do this? I'd like to ask here before starting to pay significant legal fees. Also does anyone have any recommendations for lawyers for FBR applications?
(As an aside, when I posted this, I was told "Spam Protection is Active", redirected to a login page and told I had to log in again to post; I logged in, and was taken to an empty "new reply" form, my message having been wiped. I'm used to forums being buggered up and broken, so I always take a copy of the message before trying to post. I pasted it in, hit submit, and was then told I couldn't post anyway. Well done, they need you in Dublin for FBR processing!)
