EU1 Application not proceesed within 6 months... what now?

Hello,

my wifes EU1 application is now slighlty over 6 months old. Today she called Immigration, and they told her that they are not able to process them within the legal 6 months frame anymore. According to them she will have to wait for another 1 - 2 months.

Anybody have an idea what we could do now? This is really frustrating.

Best Regards,
Daniel

I suggest you read over some of the earlier postings to this board about this same topic.

One of them is http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=11898

hi dsab ,
i have have same situation aswell i am too slightly more then 6 months ,as they have written on the top of eu1 application form that application will be proceed not longer then 6 months ,but when i rang them exect on the day after 6 months they said that decsion has not been thaken yet on ur application ,there is backlog on all these application and they can't process in given time...and thats for all applications coz huge number of application they are receiving ..
don't have any idea what to do...have to wait more .have no other choice...if u get any reply ,plz inform to d others aswell... thanks

Hi Daniel!
Do not worry. I am exactly in the same situation. Apparently it is imposible now to comply with the legal 6 months. That is what they have told me every time I call.
I am now in the month number 7 waiting for the postman to bring my envelope with the decision.
I feel really frustrated. I have never imagined that this will take so long. It is so depressing and the worst thing is that there is nobody able to help.
What I did personally was to go for advice to the Immigration Council of Ireland and they told me that what we can do is to send a complain to SOLVIT and to the European commision informing them that the Irish Autorithies are not respecting the time frame. Maybe I will do that but honestly I do not think that will be very helpful.
All the best and good luck.
Mikael

dsab85 wrote:Hello,

my wifes EU1 application is now slighlty over 6 months old. Today she called Immigration, and they told her that they are not able to process them within the legal 6 months frame anymore. According to them she will have to wait for another 1 - 2 months.

Anybody have an idea what we could do now? This is really frustrating.

Best Regards,
Daniel

Mikael wrote:What I did personally was to go for advice to the Immigration Council of Ireland and they told me that what we can do is to send a complain to SOLVIT and to the European commission informing them that the Irish Autorithies are not respecting the time frame. Maybe I will do that but honestly I do not think that will be very helpful.

The most important part of talking with Solvit, beyond getting a decision faster, is that the European Commission will see a steady stream of examples of the Irish government not meeting required deadlines and understand that there is a problem. It can then put increasing pressure on the Irish government to sort out its act, and if needed legal action.

If nobody complains formally, then there is little motivation for the Irish government to sort out the problems.

The reason there is a 6 month deadline in the first place is that the requirements for an EU-law based family member residence card are pretty straight forward. The residence card should be able to be issued quickly in most cases.

opened another thread, but thought I would put it in here as well ...

I just called the EU Treaty right Section to follow up on my wifes EU1 application (over 6 months already), and the woman on the phone dropped a bombshell.

She said the EU Treaty Rights Section has been taken to court regarding the EU1 application, and until the Court Case has been settled they won't send out any Notifications (be it positive or negative).

Anyone know any more about this?

I think 6 months is way to long. The EU should have put a limit of 6 days to sort these applications out. How can they possibly justify taking 6 months to sort out a straightforward application?

I can only imagine that it is deliberate foot-dragging on the part of an Irish government desperate to do something to show it is dealing with the "immigrant problem".

got registered envelope from dep of justice dublin yesterday morning after submmiting my application allmost 6 months and 3 week , but still good have it now, i have got 5 years alltogather, hope other guys will get their letters soon ! and good thing is that i don't need any irish re-entry visa from dublin , just have to show my residence card every time on airpotrs ....

thanks for letting everyone know,robby1.I am now in my 5th month and was gettiing worried that they had stopped issuing residency cards because of the lawsuit.

Thanks for letting us know, robby. So hopefully they just told me a lie (probably only time to be happy to be lied to).

We are now just about 6 months and 3 weeks, and if they are in fact working on it in chronological order, then we should be due a letter any day now.

Hello,

today I got a response from SOLVIT, and there really seems to be a court case:

I have contacted the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in
relation to your problem with the application for your spouse, Ms.
XXX and her Irish residency application under Directive 2004/38/EC.
I am in the initial stages of answering your query but I thought I would
give you an update as far as I understand it.

The Department of Justice are waiting for an Irish court case ruling with
regard to the Irish legislation transposing Directive 2004/38/EC and until
then the Department can not comment on applications already received.
Unfortunately, I am not sure when the judicial decision is due. I have
provided a link to the Irish legislation and the Statutory Instrument
governing the area - S.I. No. 656 of 2006. The problem appears to lie, as
far as I am aware, with regulation 3. (2) of S.I No. 656 of 2006:

Application and transitional provisions

3. (1) These Regulations shall apply to -
(a) Union citizens,
(b) subject to paragraph (2), qualifying family members of Union citizens
who are not themselves Union citizens, and
(c) subject to paragraph (2), permitted family members of Union citizens.

(2) These Regulations shall not apply to a family member unless the family member is lawfully resident in another Member State and is -

(a) seeking to enter the State in the company of a Union citizen in respect
of whom he or she is a family member, or
(b) seeking to join a Union citizen, in respect of whom he or she is a
family member, who is lawfully present in the State.

http://www.justice.ie/80256E010039E882/ ... of2006.pdf

Hello Robby,

were you/or your wife (whoever applied for the Residence permit) lawfully resident in another EU memberstate before you/she came to Ireland?

Cheers,
DSAB

dsab85 - we were in the same situation in that my wife did not live in the EU prior to us getting married, nor did we marry in the EU.

We received a years residence card at the end of last year and are currently working with solvit to get this upgraded to a full 5 year card which will function as a reentry visa.

I will keep posting the information that we get from SOLVIT, but after a short holiday next week, I will be bringing the dept/jus to the Irish Ombudsman and starting a complaint against the Irish Gov in the European Commission.

Please keep us all updated on your progress, and i will do the same,

Thanks,

Zen

Its not surprising that Ireland goverment is taking to court for not adhering to the rules/directives of the EU.These are pieces of directives which she signed into her national laws.
Here is an interesting link to EU parliament regarding Ireland failures in implementing the Directives-

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/ ... 991_EN.doc

hi dsab,
my wife is from eastern europe and i am non eu member of the family , i was living in ireland legally 2 year before i got my first year stamp direct from local immigration office in sep2005 and and now i've got rest for 5 years .. thanks

Is anybody able to get through to the Justice Dept by phone?
1890551500 option 3 & 3?
I have been calling every monday, wednesday & friday for the past month & I just can't get through to them.

Been 7 months now & still no letter from them. I've been living in Ireland for 6 years & my EU member wife for even longer. You'd think this wouldn't be a problem!

Surprisingly I talked to one of their people today. Had to dial about 30 times, but finally got through.

I got a call from one of their people on Friday regarding my wifes application, and just wanted to follow up on that call. Unfortunately he was not available, but the lady on the phone checked on the status of our application. According to her it is worked on, but no response has been sent out yet. She sent an email to her colleague (who called me on friday) and asked him to call me back today. Hope that will happen.

He told me on friday as well that the court case is causing problems with the processing of some of the applications.

We are now waiting for almost 7 months and 3 weeks. I really hope the wait will be over soon.

I just don't get how they can take so long - I don't think they care that they are messing with people's lives!
How does the court case effect people's application. Surely they need to keep processing by whatever the EU law says?
dsab85 - were you and your wife resident in Ireland before getting married?

I have been living in Ireland for more then 6 years. My wife wasn't living here (or in any other EU country) before.

Yeah, 8 months is an awful long time. My wife is pretty unhappy. She missed the wedding of her best friend, might miss the christening of my nephew (where she is supposed to be the godmother) next month, we couldn't home for XMAS, we couldn't go on honeymoon yet and most depressingly she cannot work. She has never been out of work since she finished her Master Degree, and she is desperate to get to work.

Absolutely Crazy! Have you thought about getting your passports back? We managed to get ours back, the day before my appointment for another visa application. Wasn't easy though....about 2 registered letter, 15 phone calls, faxes & emails.....But eventually we got them back. At least we were able to travel.
If I may ask - what EU country are you from? Are you able to travel on an ID card of sorts?

We got our passports back quite easily back in September. We sent them a fax requesting the return and they called the next day to confirm that we could pick them up any time.

As I am the EU citizen I can travel, it's just that my wife can't go anywhere. Her Visa has run out, and they won't issue a re-entry visa to her while the EU1 application is processed. And without the Re-entry visa no other country will issue her with a Visa. So we are stuck in Ireland for 8 months now.

I am german, btw...

Don't i know the feeling all too well. But the thing is that nobody seems to care about us non EU Nationals. Instead of our marriages making life easier for the non EU National it seems to have taken away rights from the EU Spouses. I know they can argue the fact that the EU Spouse can still travel freely, but then what kind of a marriage would that be?

0000

dsab85 wrote:As I am the EU citizen I can travel, it's just that my wife can't go anywhere. Her Visa has run out, and they won't issue a re-entry visa to her while the EU1 application is processed. And without the Re-entry visa no other country will issue her with a Visa. So we are stuck in Ireland for 8 months now.

I am german, btw...

Have you applied for a Schengen visa and/or a UK "EEA family permit" and been turned down? If so, what exact reasons did they give for turning you down?

dsab85 wrote:Anybody have an idea what we could do now? This is really frustrating.

You and others have to stop playing into the hands on the corrupt and abusive people who violate your EU rights.

Take the matter up with SOLVIT and with the German embassy. It is a clear case of Ireland's violation of its most basic EU obligations. Stop believing the BS you are being told by the chauvinistic profiteers who make up corrupt and abusive "rules" aimed at harassing you and discriminating against you.

jack_in_the_box wrote:But the thing is that nobody seems to care about us non EU Nationals. Instead of our marriages making life easier for the non EU National it seems to have taken away rights from the EU Spouses.

Exactly. By doing this, the Irish government violates both the letter and the spirit of the EU treaties which it mendaciously pretends to have implemented. This situation is unacceptable, and you need to act through EU channels in order to defend your rights and to hold the Irish government accountable.

Stop being naive. They know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it on purpose. Meanwhile they keep sucking tax money from the EU citizens whose rights they are violating (Ireland will continue to be a net recipient of EU funds until 2013 -- even though it has the second highest GNI per capita in the EU).

Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:The most important part of talking with Solvit, beyond getting a decision faster, is that the European Commission will see a steady stream of examples of the Irish government not meeting required deadlines and understand that there is a problem. It can then put increasing pressure on the Irish government to sort out its act, and if needed legal action.

If nobody complains formally, then there is little motivation for the Irish government to sort out the problems.

The reason there is a 6 month deadline in the first place is that the requirements for an EU-law based family member residence card are pretty straight forward. The residence card should be able to be issued quickly in most cases.

I strongly support this point of view. The grossly corrupt, incompetent and irresponsible Irish political class needs to learn that there are consequences to abusing EU law. Ireland has multiple problems with the EU, which are little known outside EU circles. The attitude of the Irish government has alienated many people, and it is time that they get a few lessons in good behavior.

She said the EU Treaty Rights Section has been taken to court regarding the EU1 application, and until the Court Case has been settled they won't send out any Notifications (be it positive or negative).

It has been actioned in Irish courts, which will probably intentionally stall any resolution for as long as they can.

It is hopeless to pursue this matter through Irish channels (they are grossly corrupt and work hand in hand with Irish politicians). You must take the matter up directly with EU institutions.

Here is an interesting link to EU parliament regarding Ireland failures in implementing the Directives

There are many many many other things which the Irish government has been doing to alienate the EU. You won't find even a fraction of the story discussed in public. The attitudes of the successive Irish governments towards their EU obligations have been beyond shameless -- as are the endless lies they use to present themselves as "good Europeans". Recall that most of the wealth in Ireland is a consequence of the enormous EU funds lavished on that country, which come from the TAX being paid by citizens of other EU countries, whose rights the Irish governments keep violating with apparent impunity.

I can only imagine that it is deliberate foot-dragging on the part of an Irish government desperate to do something to show it is dealing with the "immigrant problem".

Ireland has profited enormously from immigration, given the extreme dearth of elementary competence in Ireland. The Irish government is simply trying to make sure that immigrants to Ireland are being exploited, rather than treated in the same manner as Irish nationals are treated in the rest of the EU.

They just want to make sure that you and your spouse will be their servants -- while hiding the obvious fact that they have no idea how to do even the most elementary tasks involved in running a modern economy. This is why Ireland has the look and feel of a developing country, despite its enormous GNI per capita. They got used to receiving free money from the EU, and now they imagine that they can continue that charade by importing highly qualified slaves to work for them. At least that's the perception of many who work for EU institutions.