EEA family permit refused-what docu proved we live 2gethther

I am English and my wife is non-EEA and we are resident in Bulgaria. She has a residence card.
We have a right to apply for an EEA FP.

We applied for an EEA Family Permit and were refused.

They said we can appeal. Should we appeal or re-apply?

We gave them passports, marriage certificate, residence cards and proof of my job and income but they said our marriage is of convenience.

What documents would be useful to submit?

They suggested utility bills etc but we don't have these as we are living with relatives.

thanks

What reasons, if any, were given to support their claim that your marriage is one of convenience?

no reasons given to support their claim that my marriage is one of convenience

They said we haven't given enough information.
ie. bank statements / utility bills etc

but under EU Law
The Member State of destination should grant you every facility to obtain the necessary visa, which shall be issued free of charge as soon as possible and on the basis of an accelerated procedure. In any event, even in the most difficult cases, the visa should be issued no later than a couple of weeks following the date of application.
As your right of entry is derived from your family ties with a Union citizen, all the Member State consular officials can ask you to produce for the visa application is your passport and a document establishing the family ties with a Union citizen, such as marriage or birth certificate and proof of dependence, where applicable."

only Passport and marriage certificate should be produced

Your marriage certificate is UK or Bulgarian???

englishman9 wrote:no reasons given to support their claim that my marriage is one of convenience

They said we haven't given enough information. ie. bank statements / utility bills etc

Did you get the refusal in writing? What exact words did UKBA use?

You have not provided much information in this thread, in the other thread discussing your application, or in my PM. It is hard to tell if you made a mistake, they made a mistake, or there is genuine concern about a marriage of convience based on what you included in the application. If you do not provide details that are specific to your case, it will be hard for anyone to provide answers which are relevant to your case.

The exact words they used were that they refuse the EEA FP

"You have applied for and EEA family permit for admission to the United Kingdom as the spouse of a European Economic Area national, but I am satisfied that it is a marriage of convenience"

What else do you need to know?

We have 5 year Residence Cards for Bulgaria.

What documents would be useful to submit?

They suggested utility bills etc but we don't have these as we are living with my parents who live out here. My wife doesn't have a bank account here.
I have supplied my bank statements, work info etc.

englishman9 wrote:The exact words they used were that they refuse the EEA FP

"You have applied for and EEA family permit for admission to the United Kingdom as the spouse of a European Economic Area national, but I am satisfied that it is a marriage of convenience"

What else do you need to know?

I am still trying to figure out why they think it is a marriage of convenience. I can't imagine it is solely that you live with her family. After all you have been married for two years.

I am not going to think this out for you. You need to be a little reflective on what you submitted and figure out what the problem is in what you submitted.

You have avoided saying which country your wife is a citizen of. Though they are not allowed to reject it on the basis of her citizenship, it could be they have had a lot of fraudulent applications from that country recently.

Did they interview either of you?
Did they ask for additional information before rejecting the application?
Have either of you had previous contact with UKBA about this or some other application?


Actually, to answer your question, are you and she registered with the police or the city or the federal government as living at that address? (There is such a paper trail in Germany and the Netherlands, and maybe here).

Read the following document carefully and check whether anything there would apply to your case: http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/resources/en/ ... onvenience . It is indeed strange to insinuate a sham marriage based on some missing information while a valid marriage certificate demonstrates the marriage has lasted for a sufficient period. I concur with Directive, there is more to this case than what you have told us.

Since you were given the right to appeal it is left for you to convience them with additional information to prove that your marriage is not of convience. No matter what the case may be, if you can prove beyond reasonable doubt that your marriage is never of convience.
If you spouse has been in Uk before and was deported that means you need a lot of documents to prove that the either that the relationship has been existed before his deportation or that there are genuine reason to believe it is never of marriage of convience.
So in your appeal you need to package all those proof and submit to them.
It cant be merely because you didnt submit utility bills and bank statement. It is strange that after 2 years of marriage they still regard your marriage as "sham marriage".

koded wrote:Since you were given the right to appeal it is left for you to convience them with additional information to prove that your marriage is not of convience.

There is always a right to appeal for family members. But an appeal could take months. If it is really just a matter of additional documents then a fresh application will be much faster.

koded wrote:If you spouse has been in Uk before and was deported...

Not sure why you refer to deportation here. Generally, if there is an adverse immigration history an applicant must work harder but that's all in the document I linked above.

I thought I would respond to this in case the issue has not been resolved, or if anyone else googles this ... at least there is a fresher response!

I am from NZ, and my husband is from the UK. We were recently refused a visa on the grounds that we were a marriage of convenience. In their explanation for this decision, they stated it was simply because we had no photographic evidence of correspondence between each other, or from our respective families to us and there was no evidence of co-habitation or an affectionate relationship etc etc ... very insulting.

We rang the appeals tribunal, who stated that we should begin the appeal process immediately (you only have 28 days to do so from the time you receive your refusal) and also that we should reapply with the information they requested.

That was yesterday, today we have filled in the application form again and have an appointment with WorldBridge in a week's time for them to submit the documents.

Now we are going completely over-board with documents proving our relationship.

-We have hundreds of greeting cards (cards from HIS family to me for my birthday, and cards from MY family to his, christmas cards addressed to the both of us, engagement cards, wedding cards etc)

-Our engagement notice from the local newspaper

-We have taken screen shots of our "wall-to-wall" conversations on facebook (seeing as we live together we didn't know how else to prove we converse ... and at least these show dates from as far back as we first started conversing)

-They specifically mentioned having no photos from the wedding, so we are sending those along as well as a load of other photos ... photos of my with his family and so on will be a big help too.

-Rental contracts, joint bank accounts anything else that proves that you live together, and even sworn affidavits from family members saying that they know you to have been in a relationship for however long and so on ... all they need is to get is signed by a lawyer or justice of the peace and it shouldn't cost anything.

I think that is all I can think of. The most important thing is that you can re-apply with the information you missed out at the same time as you start to appeal, and cancel the appeal if the EEA permit comes back positive.

This site is helpful too: http://www.ukvac-ru.com/faqs.aspx - particularly part 8.

Anyway, hope this helps either the original poster, or someone else that comes across this situation. It is horrible but just make sure you're aware of your rights and give as much evidence as you can.

Molasses wrote:I am from NZ, and my husband is from the UK. We were recently refused a visa on the grounds that we were a marriage of convenience. In their explanation for this decision, they stated it was simply because we had no photographic evidence of correspondence between each other, or from our respective families to us and there was no evidence of co-habitation or an affectionate relationship etc etc ... very insulting.

Were you applying for an EEA family permit? Have you been living in a non-UK European country?

Yeah we are living in Germany

When did you get married?

Molasses, what happened with the appeal? I am handing in my application for a Family Permit on Friday. I've been researching this for months and nobody had an experience like yours... and now I'm worried!

Please let me know how it went at the end of the day?

We haven't been married that long, and to top it, we'd been doing long-distance before that! (He - EEA National - was transferred to the UK. Same company, different country.) So, cohabitation hasn't been an option prior to the marriage and post marriage, well, it really wasn't that long before he had to go back - and we were living with his parents in order to save properly.

We have everything in terms of documentation, I have also gone over and beyond proving our relationship. It's fairly easy considering that we've known each other in excess of five years now.

But, as I said - now you have me worried! Is it just because you are applying to gain entry into the UK?

I really hope that all worked out in the end!