EEA Family Permit Refusal to my Wife

Hi All,

My wife today has received a refusal for EEA Family Permit application that we have submitted for her to move to live with me in UK. I will describe details and our circumstances below and sincerely hope that you could give some useful advise on how to proceed in our case.

I am a EU national, who is living and working in United Kingdom for the last 10 years. I have met my wife (a Ukrainian national) over 2 years ago and since then have been in relationship with her; during that period I have been visiting Ukraine every 2 month.

Once we got married, my wife has submitted an application for EEA Family permit, where the following supporting documents were provided: translated marriage certificate, letter from my employer, my pay slips covering last 6 month, etc. Unfortunately today we have received an unsatisfactory decision from immigration officer, where reason for refusal was laid out as follows:

While you have provided a marriage certificate to show that you were married on the XXX, the evidence before me does not indicate that your relationship with the EEA national can reasonably be considered as one of substance.
In your current application you state your relationship with sponsor started on 10/3/2014 and that you see each other every 2-3 month, as your spouse has been residing in UK since 2016.

I note that with your application you have provided no evidence of any regular contact with your husband, his visits to Ukraine or photographs showing you and your husband together at any time before, at or since your marriage. You have therefore failed to demonstrate satisfactorily that both you and your sponsor intend to live permanently with each other and that there is any substance to the marriage.

The refusal documents then goes on explaining how to appeal against this decision. However, having read about the appeal process, I understand that it might take considerable amount of time and that the better way forward would be to re-apply via the same route. Is this the case?

If repeating the application is indeed the suggested way to proceed, I would need to better understand what documents/evidence could be added to demonstrate the fact that we have been in relationship for the past 2 years... My initial thoughts was to add a photocopy of my passport showing a large number of Ukraine border stamps (which you get when entering/leaving the country), as well as past hotel bookings (showing her/my names). Finally, we can add a selection of photographs covering past 2 years and showing us together. Any suggestion on how many to include? Am I missing something from this list?

Finally, we have made a mistake of purchasing flight tickets for my wife (assuming that decision from Immigration office will be satisfactory) upfront and since the flight is due in 1 week - my wife is not likely to make it. Can you suggest if there are any reasonable way to fast-track the application process or take any further actions to avoid having to re-purchase costly flights?

I would really appreciate any help/advise you can give and am willing to provide any additional information if required.

Many Thanks!

How do you communicate with her when you are in the UK?

Our communication was mostly done via Facebook Messenger & Skype. Furthermore, we have also been on a number of trips abroad, including visiting my parents in Lithuania (for which my wife was successfully issued a visa). Would any of this help?

Hi slanciov,

When I had to apply for the EEA Family permit to come to the UK to join my husband back in 2012, I included the following as evidence of relationship:

- Copies of plane tickets/boarding passes from trips we did together and our visits to each other, along with hotel bookings.
- Pictures of us together in holidays, and with family and friends. And pictures of the wedding, of course.
- The log of our call history on Skype (I think I took a screenshot of it, don't know if now is possible to download it directly).
- Email and facebook messages and chat conversations.

With your passport showing the stamps proving you've been travelling regularly to Ukraine plus the rest of the evidence you should be fine. How many items to include is difficult to answer, I sent quite a big file; but as long as the full length of your relationship is documented evenly there shouldn't be any problem. I do remember I tried to have a balance between pictures that were more "spontaneous", and the typical "we are posing together".

Also, I remember being given the option to request the authorities to give priority to my case on the day I presented it... My husband wrote a letter explaining why I needed the permit issued ASAP, and it was included with the rest of the documentation; but I'm not sure if it can be done the same way nowadays. I think you'll need to ask at the centre where your wife has to present the application.

Hope this is useful for you, and good luck!

CharlotteCorday, thanks a lot for these details. That is certainly helpful and I will try to supply everything as you have advised when re-applying.

I am also wondering about the following two points:
- Is it acceptable to re-apply for EEA Family Permit instead of going through the lengthy appeal process? If so - is there a maximum number of applications that a person can submit within set period of time?
- Since most of supporting documents we have provided in the initial application (ex. reference from my employer, translated & certified marriage certificate) have been kept by Immigration - would we need to gather all these documents again when re-applying or is there a way to reference previously submitted documents?

It's your choice on whether to apply or appeal or do both. I don't think that there is a limit to the number of applications within a set period of time.

Safest to include all documents, even if previously submitted.

Thanks vinny, appreciate your response. I will take on board your advises and start preparing documents for a new application. Hopefully this time things will be more in our favour.