My wife lost her Visa

[gilbutre]

Hi everyone,

I'm a EEA French citizen working in UK and my wife is a non-EEA peruvian citizen also working here. She came with a 6 month spouse Visa. Shortly after she obtained a permanent Visa (a printed document, not something put on her passport), she lost it.

An immigration advisor told us that she has to go through the whole application process again, just as if it was the first time she applied for a Visa. He said there is no way to somehow tell the Home Office "hey we lost what you just send to us could you please issue it again and send it?"

I find it incredible and absurd. Is it true ??

[86ti]

There is no such thing as a 6 months spouse visa or a permanent visa so I suspect that you are actually talking about the EEA family permit and (permanent) residence card neither of which are visa. If so, then the answer is yes and you will have to reapply again though the UKBA should still hold a record of your wife's status and, in theory at least, they should only need proof that she has not been away from the UK for more than 2 years.

[gilbutre]

Yep sorry I'm talking about a permanent resident card indeed. So basically the application will follow the normal process and last the normal delay, which could be 6 months ?

(she applied in 2008 and it took no less than 14 months to get a response)

[romainriou]

Gilbutre,

I am French as well and my Russian wife is in the same situation. She got a residence permit stamped in her passport last July (after 6 months of waiting).
Her passport has been stolen 1 month ago.
She has already asked the Russian embassy a new passport and will hopefully get a new one in 2-3 months.

And then, we have been told the exact same (stupid) story: there is no re-stamping!
For other stamps/visas, you can do a TOC (Transfer of Conditions), and if you go in person (in Croydon for example), you have a new stamp within one week.
BUT NOT FOR THIS EEA RESIDENCE PERMIT!

She will have to go through the whole painful process again.

We are like you, we cannot believe it.
As 98ti said, we can only hope that they will use the status record to make this re-application faster. But I am really not holding my breath...
The immigration advisor confirmed that such a process is against european laws, but that is not of much help...

If anyone here has a clever idea or has had a similar experience, please share.
It would be nice to hear that somebody that already re-applied got the new stamp in, say, one month!!

Romain