Stopped by immigration with EEA Family Permit

Hi everyone,

Well, after a long battled appeal, my partner was finally granted his unmarried EEA Family Permit to come and join me in the UK (he is from Mexico).

He arrived with it on Septemeber 30th, but as he went through immigration he was stopped and asked questions about his previous refusal to the UK from March 2011, and then they proceeded to call me to verify I was at the airport waiting for him. They let him through eventually, but not without any questioning.

Last night we arrived to Stansted airport after a 9 day holiday and I decided to go through the non EU line with my partner. When we arrived to the immigration officer, he again began asking questions about his previous refusal, then he looked at his EEA Family Permit, and then he asked us to sit down as he needed to investigate further. He left his counter and returned back about 10 minutes later and waved for us to go back to his counter. Without saying anything else, he stamped my partners passport and said he was free to go.

My blood was absolutely boiling however I didnt say anything as I didnt want to complicate anything further. But what I would like to know is whether I should make a complaint about this and if so, who do I need to send the complaint to? Can they do this to us everytime we travel, even if I am with my partner? I thought that once he received his EEA FP, he wouldnt have any hassles when re-entering. The reason for his previous refusal to the UK was because he didnt have sufficient evidence that he would be leaving the UK if they had allowed him in since he is a non visa national, so Im not sure what he has been flagged for if he is being stopped because of this reason.

If anyone has any advice for me on how to deal with this, if even at all, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone!!!

You are making a mountain out of a mole hill. What's wrong with people paid to protect our borders making sure everything is in order?

To make sure you were in the country is quite an acceptable check to make.

In my experience, depending where you are flying from, the delays in the EU national queues are far longer than the non-EU queues and the waiting times much longer. Quite bizarre for people wanting to enter their own country.

He hasn't been refused entry - the Family Permit is doing its job. UKBA are doing their's. Don't take it personally.

soniac,

One option is to simply refuse to answer their questions. I would personally be more comfortable doing that after your partner has received his Residence Card.

But you can also feel very free to turn it all around, and take control of the conversation. Ask them questions. Ask for their names and badge numbers and write them down. Ask them on what basis they are asking these prying questions. Ask for their supervisor to join the conversation, and write down they badge number and name. And always be patient and polite in the whole process.

Not many people are willing to do this. But if you are polite and patient, it can be a lot of fun.

The job of the IO is to verify two things:
- that document and person belong to each other
- that the document is not forged
Anything more than that, and they are no longer doing their own job, but repeating the job of their colleague who issued the FP (or RC, whatever the case may be) and wasting their time, your time, and everybody else's time who is waiting in the queue behind you.

Always feel free to ask for the Chief Immigration Officer if you think the IO is going too far. I've had many problems with IO's and on each occasion the CIO resolved the situation very quickly, only to spend much more time on apologizing for the hassle.

Thank you very much for your replies, I just wanted some confirmation on how to handle being put in these situations. I fully respect that the IO's are doing their job, however, I wanted to know how to handle being put in these situations since we will be travelling a few more times before his family permit expires. It's just very frustrating to have to keep justifying ourselves when we had to appeal and wait 6 months to get his family permit in the first place, and to be questioned everytime he enters is a bit irritating, but I will certainly take your advice Directive and be sure to turn it around and ask questions and be as polite as ever:)) And of course get the Chief Immigration Officer involved the next time to have my questions answered.

Thanks again everyone, always very helpful!!!

Unfortunately the marker on his file (because of his history) would mean the IO will likely examine his case a bit more than normal. I suggest next time it happens, you ask for the CIO and ask to either remove the marker or just add a note in his file to ease future entries.

Sensible advice.

Will definitely do that, thanks Jambo!!!

And since we are a curious bunch, let us know how it goes in the future!

I certainly will keep you all posted!!!

hi soniac,
i had similar situation to yr partner few times at the uk airport wenever i enter uk from holidays. sometimes alone or with my EU partner (finnish -lady). I am non-eu citizen and visa national country. we met in the UK and i got my RC as unmarried partner in MAY-2011, after 2nd attempt. 1st attempt was refused coz home office said my partner finnish ID card was no longer valid according to the finnish authority. i then reapplied using her finnish passport.( i was issued with COA to work)

i sometimes get question to confirm her D.O.B, country, where we both live , even tho we av moved house from the time i 1st applied for the RC, and also her mobile number and if she still in the UK. i give it to them as i got anytin to hide anyways.

And now we av a baby girl with a finnish and a british passports. we all recently went to finland together and gettin back to uk heathrow airport, the IO-lady checked all our passport on the EU LINE..and told me to wait , gave my partner and daughter passprts bck and held mine.. sayin she needs to check few things and went for abt 10mins.

my partner said to me not to worry, that they av no right to refuse me entry as a EEA FAMILY MEMBER. when the IO got back, she was apologetic and tell me d reason why i get stopped and questioned all the time. she explained to me dat coz at the time of my 1st application i was refused and my old work permit has expired while passprt in possession with the home office..and technically i have overstayed and as we are not married, am not covered as much at dat time.

so they noted me on their system as an overstayer at that time..so everytime i get thru immigration in the UK, it shows overstayed and my current RC.

The lady told me further that homeoffice takes long to update old immigration records, but they wil update it eventually as she has put an update note on the system for me.. that she can now see & confirm that i am with my EU national partner and child.

she said by next time i shldnt av any more questionings or stoppage, and said sorry for the delay and gave me my passprt back.
we are now going finland again for xmaz soon, and i will see if all what she told me has been corrected when we get back to the UK.. and will update you guys when back.

SO i think, coz your partner has been refused before in mexico, thats wat is still flagging up on their system wen he enter UK.

fysicus wrote:The job of the IO is to verify two things:
- that document and person belong to each other
- that the document is not forged
Anything more than that, and they are no longer doing their own job, but repeating the job of their colleague who issued the FP (or RC, whatever the case may be) and wasting their time, your time, and everybody else's time who is waiting in the queue behind you.

Always feel free to ask for the Chief Immigration Officer if you think the IO is going too far. I've had many problems with IO's and on each occasion the CIO resolved the situation very quickly, only to spend much more time on apologizing for the hassle.

It's also part of an IO's job to affirm that a person is seeking to enter the UK in accordance with the permission given / rights possessed by him. For example, it's entirely correct that an IO be satisfied that a person seeking to enter the UK with a student visa is indeed a bonafide student. Merely ascertaining that a student visa belongs to a student and that it is not forged is not enough.

[quote="smallpie"]hi soniac,
i had similar situation to yr partner few times at the uk airport wenever i enter uk from holidays. sometimes alone or with my EU partner (finnish -lady). I am non-eu citizen and visa national country. we met in the UK and i got my RC as unmarried partner in MAY-2011, after 2nd attempt. 1st attempt was refused coz home office said my partner finnish ID card was no longer valid according to the finnish authority. i then reapplied using her finnish passport.( i was issued with COA to work)

i sometimes get question to confirm her D.O.B, country, where we both live , even tho we av moved house from the time i 1st applied for the RC, and also her mobile number and if she still in the UK. i give it to them as i got anytin to hide anyways.

And now we av a baby girl with a finnish and a british passports. we all recently went to finland together and gettin back to uk heathrow airport, the IO-lady checked all our passport on the EU LINE..and told me to wait , gave my partner and daughter passprts bck and held mine.. sayin she needs to check few things and went for abt 10mins.

my partner said to me not to worry, that they av no right to refuse me entry as a EEA FAMILY MEMBER. when the IO got back, she was apologetic and tell me d reason why i get stopped and questioned all the time. she explained to me dat coz at the time of my 1st application i was refused and my old work permit has expired while passprt in possession with the home office..and technically i have overstayed and as we are not married, am not covered as much at dat time.

so they noted me on their system as an overstayer at that time..so everytime i get thru immigration in the UK, it shows overstayed and my current RC.

The lady told me further that homeoffice takes long to update old immigration records, but they wil update it eventually as she has put an update note on the system for me.. that she can now see & confirm that i am with my EU national partner and child.

she said by next time i shldnt av any more questionings or stoppage, and said sorry for the delay and gave me my passprt back.
we are now going finland again for xmaz soon, and i will see if all what she told me has been corrected when we get back to the UK.. and will update you guys when back.

SO i think, coz your partner has been refused before in mexico, thats wat is still flagging up on their system wen he enter UK.[/quote]

Thanks for that info smallpie...its just not a nice feeling being detained...i did write to ukba after this and asked if there is some way of updating the system so that he is not flagged again, waiting for their reply....hoping this doesnt happen again after we travel over the xmas holidays.

Just an update. I received a reply from an email I sent to the UKBA complaining about being detained when re-entering the uk. They have told me that it should no longer happen on our future returns to the UK.

We are now going to be travelling for Christmas so we will find out whether they have removed the marker from my partners file. We will take along a copy of the letter ukba sent us and see what happens this time around. Really hoping it is a much smoother return:))

Happy Holidays everyone:))

hi soniac,
thats nice of ukba to reply u tho, i wld av thot they wldnt reply to such complains,,as they are not bothered most times.
plz update when u next travel and cuming back to the uk.
i will update u guys too soon when we get back to the uk regarding mine too. as presently we r in finland for xmas till the end of the year.

merry xmas and have a lovely time.

Hi everyone,

So here's the update:)

Upon re-entering the UK after our most recent holiday, my partner was not detained:)) YAYYYY? The UK border complaint office that we had written to got back to us and explained how his current EEA Family Permit status had not been updated in the system when he was granted the permit, hence why he was detained upon his first entry and after our first holiday. They still had my partner red flagged from a previous refusal to the UK he had in 2011 when he was visiting me.

They assured me in their response that we should no longer experience delays at the border when we re-enter and so far so good.

My advice to everyone is to complain complain complain when you are in the right otherwise little things like this will never get resolved. And in the end, they were really polite and pretty quick in resolving the complaint.

Now just praying the RC comes through quickly and hassle free:))

Cheers everyone!!!

soniac wrote:Hi everyone,

So here's the update:)

Upon re-entering the UK after our most recent holiday, my partner was not detained:)) YAYYYY? The UK border complaint office that we had written to got back to us and explained how his current EEA Family Permit status had not been updated in the system when he was granted the permit, hence why he was detained upon his first entry and after our first holiday. They still had my partner red flagged from a previous refusal to the UK he had in 2011 when he was visiting me.

They assured me in their response that we should no longer experience delays at the border when we re-enter and so far so good.

My advice to everyone is to complain complain complain when you are in the right otherwise little things like this will never get resolved. And in the end, they were really polite and pretty quick in resolving the complaint.

Now just praying the RC comes through quickly and hassle free:))

Cheers everyone!!!

Excellent, good for you.

soniac wrote:My advice to everyone is to complain complain complain when you are in the right otherwise little things like this will never get resolved.

I agree totally!