IRL - Anyone got decission on EU1 residence application?

Brownbonno - are the EU Citizen from Holland and the Non-EC Citizen from Nigeria married?

Where are they both living?

Non EU resident in Nigeria
EU resident in Holland
Both married in August there in Nigeria and plan to relocate to Ireland.The EU citizen just came back from Nigeria 2 weeks ago after waiting for 6 weeks for the Visa.With new plan to relocate to Ireland while they wait for the spouse Visa approval.

Ok now I am starting to understand - Is the EU person a citizen of Holland but resident in Ireland?

Are they applying for their Nigerian spouse to join the EU spouse in Ireland?

Also this issue isnt really to do with the EU1 visa - you should perhaps make another thread for it - so this one does not derail.

Hi Zen and everybody else,
Thanks for all the details, right now there is not much i can do, am still waiting either for all the papers or for the letter for the residency card. I do not run to my mail box every day as i know i will not get anything before Xmass, i will keep an eye here and keep you guys updated if something comes up, in the meantime i just read above, and for just a regular visa or a D visa it took my husband (turkish national) 5 months to get it, as if the country where the allien applies does not issue irish visas then everything has to be done here in Dublin. So all together it has been one year and a few weeks that we are expecting something to happen to eventually start a life.......Anyway good luck on your quest and will talk to you all soon..

So, if I read previous threads and responses correcly, then some people who applied in the middle of June should be due their response by now. Did anyone else hear anything lately?

I was hoping they would go for a big push before they go on their XMAS/NY break.

cheers,
DSAB85

Applied via EU3 on May 16 ( the date stamped on the confirmation receipt ) , and the application was granted on November 30 . Our passports were sent back soon after we requested them - a request I was told to make via fax . Always found the staff at Dept. Justice helpful , although I was not happy with the time taken to deal with my wife's application .

I would like to share my story which might be of interest to some ppl out there.

I am a Swedish citizen living in Ireland (since March 2006) and my wife is from an African country. She applied for a D-visa to join me in Ireland in May 2006. At this time we had already been married for two years and she had visited me in Sweden on C-visas several times.

Her D-visa was granted in October and she came to Ireland a few days ago. Like many others she was told at the airport to register with the Gardai at Burgh Quay in Dublin. Border control at the airport were actually very helpful and nice (although the information given was incorrect)

I took a day off from work to assist her with the paperwork and it did take one whole day:

-Since we plan on going to Sweden for christmas our first port of call was the Swedish embassy in Dublin. They accepted my wife's visa application, did not keep her passport, promised that it would be processed in time, but said that they could only grant it if we showed that she has the right to re-enter to Ireland. The thing is that her D-visa is a single entry visa and that single entry was used up when she came to Ireland.

Next stop was Burgh Quay and I assumed this would be a formality - after all, my wife had already sent in tons of documents and waited 5 months in the D-visa process.

First we went to the Garda desk, and after 40 minutes wait we were told to go to the justice.ie page and search for the EU1 form. Hurray! Regarding the re-entry to Ireland after visiting Sweden, they said we should ask at the visa office.

After q-ing 30 minutes at the visa office we were told that normally you need a residence card to apply for a re-entry visa, but that we could ask the Gardai for a covering letter with which my wife could apply for a re-entry visa at the visa office. They said we had to queue at the Garda desk again, but not at the visa office when we came back.

Back to the Garda desk then, and another 40 minutes of waiting. This time we were told flat out that they couldnt help us with a covering letter and that my wife wouldnt be able to leave Ireland until she got the residence card and that this process would take 6 months. Quite an unpleasant surprise.

We still went to the visa desk to see if there was any possibility of getting a re-entry vis anyway. The lady who we spoke to originally wasnt there so we had to wait some 30 minutes before managing to talk to somebody. This time we addressed by a seemingly senior female officer who among other things said "I can't believe that you are telling me that your wife is not allowed to travel with you to Sweden! [...] You are a Swedish citizen, right?" I had to explain that "well, it's not exactly entering Sweden that is the problem, but that according to her passport she can't re-enter Ireland and Swedish authorities want to avoid a situation where someone is in limbo between two countries." The officer seemed to get my point, said she would have to check EU regulations on this case, and asked us to come back 15 minutes after closing time.

45 minutes after closing time they told us we they were sorry we couldnt get a residence card today [long pause] but that they could issue a multiple entry d-visa valid for 6 months right away. One hour later my wife got this visa.

So the christmas is saved, but a few problems remain. As assume ppl on this form know by now, passports are asked in original. Since we are going to Sweden in less than two weeks I dont dare to send in our passports so I am planning to make nice colour copies of them, explain the situation and send them in at a later point.

What do you more experienced people think about this approach?

Hi Erik84, do not send your passport to the office, just get the copies and send it to them like that, from what i heard from other friends and myself in same situations, they get the files, don't even look at them for the first month then they process it (put it on file in their system), then they send it back if you get lucky in a few weeks (which is not my case)....You are lucky enough to have got a reentry visa, just go to Sweden for Xmass and if they do ask for it later you can always send it at that point. Because if you look at it, they ask you for originals, i didn't send mine, i send only an id (french one), i travel a lot due to work, but i did send my husband passport (turkish) and now we are stock for Xmass as he cannot live. So go and see it later.....

Hi Kab118, thanks for your answer. I think using National ID Cards instead of passports is the solution to our problem. (Why didnt I think of that earlier.) I have a Swedish driving license (but no car) which works as a national id card, and she has an Ecowas travel certificate which is both an id card and works as a passport for travels within the ecowas states in West Africa. That should be accepted I hope.

The travel certificate was by the way very useful during the 5 month it took her to get the d-visa. We manged to go on holidays together in Senegal and the Cape Verde Islands. Senegal is I believe the only country in the world to which none of us need a visa. Well, well...

Hey, Erik,
You see after all Africa is not that bad, me personally i love it there.....Anyway, the idea of giving my ID card was because i was not happy to give my passport away, and i do travel extensively every months almost, unfortunately i didnt think for my husband's one, and noww we are stock and cannot even go see our daughter who is with her grandparents in South Africa, so you see we are all in same kind of boat.....

Hi everyone,
I received the registered letter from immigration last saturday.I was granted the five-year eu card (need go to GNIB to get it this afternoon).This eu card also serves as a re-entry visa,that is,I don't have to apply for any visa to re-enter ireland in the following years.
let me summarize the process of my application:

- June 14 sent the application form along with original marriage cert and rent book by registered mail to immigration.
-June 19 the application was received by immigration. (though i didn't know it until recently~!)
- June- last friday : called immigration uncountable times and contributed lot of euro costed credits to Vodafone.
- December 9 received the positive answer.

I think the difference between my case and Zen63's wife's is that after got married with my french husband,I lived in France for nearly 2 years before I came to ireland.And I applied for my visa in Paris (waited 3 months to get it).This is in accordance with the "resident in another eu country" condition .

Anyway,I need go to GNIB to obtain my card today.I am looking forward to seeing that mysterious EU card.

I got my card at last!
the card is still a GNIB green card but the stamp type is 4 EU Fam

I received my decision today! Same as most with 5 year residency. I'm off to get my card tomorrow. Hope I make it to the long cue!

Hello, everyone, i just got the letter on friday for my husband card, and we are on the way to the office just now......We got one year approuved, and after my vacation i will look into the 5 years.....I have been waiting for this for so long that i wont to enjoy it a bit.....They took 4 months and 3 weeks, so i guess they are trying to give a push before christmass........Yeah

Wow. sounds good. Seems as if they are now really pushing for it. That means my wife will hopefull hear soon as well. 4 months and almost 3 weeks as well at the moment.

Congrats - please do push for the five year card once you are back from your holiday - it will help all the poor unfortunates who come after us!

hi , to all just have inquiry from people those who got their decissions on eu 1 application , could anyone tell that after getting your approval letter from dep what else documents you need to bring to local immigration office to get ur passport stamp and to get residence card...and do ur e u spouse need to be their aswell?


thanks robby

Good morning to you all,
Zen if you are on the site today, i have a question for you. Yesterday when we went to the GNIB office to get the residence card, we were trying to get a re-entry visa, since the queue was faster,( i was thinking that we could telll them look, we are waiting for the card but can we do the visa in the meantime), and the guy there said that now, we do not need a re-entry visa.
Of course you can imagine i was very surprised. But i shut up and went to get the card. Since am french i already called the french embassy who wont give him a visa to visit France due to the fact that he does not have a re-entry visa.....same for Turkish consulate(if he goes back home they wont let him live with correct reentry paper). I am on the way back there this morning (thank god i only live 10 mns away by bus), to try it again. Have you ever heard such a thing? In case they say the same thing to me again do you think i should try Solvit as well or who else?
Thanks they are seriously getting on my nerves, and i am going away this afternoon for a break....I will be back just before X-Mass. Thanks for your help.

Hi Robby,
to answer your question above, yes both of you need to be present when you do go to get the card. Although this has nothing to do with me directly, am not the one who needs the card, they talked to me the all time, as if i was the one in trouble. I brought with me all the papers that they send back in post to me, my passport, my husband's, rent contract, bills, letter of employment.....etc.
At the end they only look at the letter the the office sned you and my french passport, but beware that they might ask you for all the above.

Hey Zen, one last think before i go, i just wanted to say that you are correct, they do not know a thing there. When it was our turn to the office, the guy behind the counter, didn't even look at the letter and told us to go to download eu 1 form again. I nearly broke the window to twist his neck......They dont even know a thing.........dont even read, dont even care.........Well will keep you updated about the five years ......

thanks kab118 , i hope that will be the same what you told, but still waiting for their reply from dep...hope will get it soon....thanks for all your help..

Hi All!

I am writing as well to make you sure that you are not alone waiting for the decision. I am going really mad while waiting for my husband's application news. I am Polish, he is Bangladeshi. We got married while he was on stamp 3.
Previously he was on student visa. But as advised by Garda, they said - you dont need to extend your student visa! Just apply with EU1 for a residency card as Family Member of Eu Citizen.
Now I can see how their trap were big!!
I never thought we could be that much mislead by Garda Officers.
We are living in Cork, so I do not suggest you to come here!!

Best luck guys!!

hi sorry for writing to u but it seems u know a lot.im polish live in ireland for 6 yrs and i wana marry my bf from algeria i dont know where to start,someone told me that i have to apply for residency or naturalization but im europeanian so whats the point and we wana get married in algeria where should i apply after i read all post and im really confused and worried,i was try to ring immigration office milion times no answer.im not good with all that plz can u help me.thank u.