recieved the decision letter today!

We received a letter from the Department of Justice this morning informing us, as expected, that our application for a residency permit has been denied on the basis of not residing in another EU member state before our arrival in Ireland.

It said that as my husband was here legally as a visitor when he applied, it was open to us to contact our local immigration office to enquire about renewing this status. Well, needless to say, we drove immediately to our local immigration office (armed with all our paper work - marriage cert, healthcare, passports, letter of employment etc.)

At first we though we were not going to get anything at all from them, as their seems to be a big missing link between the GNIB and the more remote immigration offices. We explained to our immigration officer that we had seen (in the case of static and some others i believe) them grant a stamp 3 at the GNIB in Dublin to people with this letter. He then took our paperwork, gave them a call and came back with the "good" news - my husband has been given a stamp 3 (1 year) although he has to collect his registration card and the official stamp at the end of the week. Apparently the machines that print the cards are very expensive and they have only issued one to each county. so we have to wait for another office to print the card before he can have his passport stamped.

We originally applied back in March so it was literally 6 months and 2 weeks that we waited... although we had our local TD on the case last week so that may be why we got the letter so "soon" in comparison to others - who knows...?.

This is a relief for us - the main priority is for me to continue working and at least we have that reassurance for the next year. We will be reapplying for a residence permit if the supreme court overturns this ludicrous requirement for previous residence and will also be writing to them to try and get a stamp 4 for my husband...

My question to any one who has received the letter - how and where do we appeal? there is no mention of our option to appeal... absolutely nothing in the letter...

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=18442
Check out that thread, it doesn't have a lot of the particulars, but does state that you have 3 months in which to do something and gives a few links.

Glad they did end up approving the stamp 3!

Ok.. does anyone know.. can we appeal on our own or does it have to be a legal appeal... in other words, do we need to get in touch with a solicitor?

You can write a letter addressed to the Minister of Justice giving him reasons why you think he should reconsider the Department's decision. You can have it sent to the minister via your local T.D.

For a sample letter...
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... ght=#97158

You can try to contact the free legal aid 'FLAC' in your area (talk to the information officer in your local community center) and see if they will take up your case, or contact ECAS - European Citizen Action Service
http://www.ecas.org/434/default.aspx?id=603
ECAS with the support of AICE (Association for Innovative Co-operation in Europe) has created a free movement solidarity fund. This will provide support for free legal advice and cases which cannot be funded by the individual concerned or legal aid, stand a reasonable chance of success under Community law or the European Convention on Human Rights, and are in the public interest. A leaflet about the fund and more detailed guidelines about how it will operate are available from ECAS.
http://www.ecas.org/file_uploads/461.pdf
http://www.ecas.org/file_uploads/380.doc

We took the option of talking to a solicitor because we were afraid if Kumar lost the case, they'd apply the decision for everyone. We wanted to be sure that we would have the option of taking the government to court that our situation is quite different from Kumar. Anyone could lose the option of going to court if they can't show that they took some sort of action in response to the denial letter within 3 months.

archigabe wrote:We took the option of talking to a solicitor because we were afraid if Kumar lost the case, they'd apply the decision for everyone. We wanted to be sure that we would have the option of taking the government to court that our situation is quite different from Kumar. Anyone could lose the option of going to court if they can't show that they took some sort of action in response to the denial letter within 3 months.

writing an appeal letter to DoJ EU Treaty Rights is not enough? In the rejection letter, it doesn't even say where to appeal. We appealed 1 month ago but didn't hear anything back. We've actually sent 3 letter but no response whatsoever. We are being ignored and when we just wait for the DoJ response, we would even more punished??

archigabe... could you send me a pm with an indication of the costs involved of gettin a solicitor..

could you recommend a solicitor?

You will need to take a deep breath...

We appealed at the end of March 2007, and had no response at all until July 2007, when we left Ireland. I am sure if we would have stayed we would still not have had a response by now. We also sent 2 reminders, which wnet unnoticed.

We also sent a letter in July explaining that we left Ireland, therefore retracted our application and appeal and asked for a written confirmation of that. We still have had no response.

In 1 year we got 1 Letter from them... and that was the refusal after almost 9 months, nothing before and nothing since then...

dsab85 wrote:You will need to take a deep breath...

We appealed at the end of March 2007, and had no response at all until July 2007, when we left Ireland. I am sure if we would have stayed we would still not have had a response by now. We also sent 2 reminders, which wnet unnoticed.

We also sent a letter in July explaining that we left Ireland, therefore retracted our application and appeal and asked for a written confirmation of that. We still have had no response.

In 1 year we got 1 Letter from them... and that was the refusal after almost 9 months, nothing before and nothing since then...

What an absolutely disgusting service the DoJ are providing. Talk about backward. This country sickens me. The way everything and I mean EVERYTHING is so backward, disorderly, inefficient and badly run. "It's grand, you're grand".. everything's grand but the problem is - nothing is. Wake up Ireland and start behaving like a civilized, established, first world European Union state.

benifa wrote:

dsab85 wrote:You will need to take a deep breath...

We appealed at the end of March 2007, and had no response at all until July 2007, when we left Ireland. I am sure if we would have stayed we would still not have had a response by now. We also sent 2 reminders, which wnet unnoticed.

We also sent a letter in July explaining that we left Ireland, therefore retracted our application and appeal and asked for a written confirmation of that. We still have had no response.

In 1 year we got 1 Letter from them... and that was the refusal after almost 9 months, nothing before and nothing since then...

What an absolutely disgusting service the DoJ are providing. Talk about backward. This country sickens me. The way everything and I mean EVERYTHING is so backward, disorderly, inefficient and badly run. "It's grand, you're grand".. everything's grand but the problem is - nothing is. Wake up Ireland and start behaving like a civilized, established, first world European Union state.

Agreed completely
You have my support !

we wanted to use a solicitor just in case the decision goes against kumar so we can lodge another case indicating our situation is different from Kumar. Unless you take action within a specified time period you lose your chance to use legal means to appeal...really sucks,but having observed the Irish system for a year now it seem the government don't bother to respond unless you happen to know Bertie's uncle or you can afford to slip in briefcases of money...
I am writing a list of solicitors who deal with immigration law in Dublin. This list was given to me by the Immigrant Council,so I am not promoting anyone.

1. Kevin Brophy
Brophy Solicitors,
38 Parliament Street Temple Bar,
Dublin 2
01-6797930

2.Brendan Toale
MacGeehin,Toale and Nagle Solicitors
10 Prospect Road
Harts Corner
Glasnevi
Dublin 9
01 830 7799

3.Conor O'Brian
16 North King Street,
Dublin 7
Phone 01 8734201

4.Derek Stewart
Stewart and Co.
12 Parliament Street,
Dublin2
01 6775011

According to our solicitors, they charge around 1000 euros to initiate legal proceedings and could take upto 3000-5000 for total costs. good thing is, if we win our case, the government can be forced to pay our legal fees.