Dear sir or madam,
The day I write this my sister in law went to pick up my stepdaughter’s travel documents, only to find that her travel document has been denied. See the added documents for the reasons stated by the UKBA.
I write to you disputing your reasons, and will re-apply this same week, and my sister in law will hand in the documents at the soonest possible convenience, expecting a different result, and would like this application to be processed quicker than the previous one, because the previous application was not handled correctly. I wonder if perhaps there has been a mixup in files, since the refusal letter also features a wrong birthday.
Why I believe your reason for denying [Stepdaughter] is faulty:
The requirements of Regulation 12:
“12.—(1) An entry clearance officer must issue an EEA family permit to a person who applies
for one if the person is a family member of an EEA national and—
(a) the EEA national—
(i) is residing in the UK in accordance with these Regulations; or
(ii) will be travelling to the United Kingdom within six months of the date of the
application and will be an EEA national residing in the United Kingdom in
accordance with these Regulations on arrival in the United Kingdom; and
(b) the family member will be accompanying the EEA national to the United Kingdom or
joining him there and—
(i) is lawfully resident in an EEA State; or
(ii) would meet the requirements in the immigration rules (other than those relating to entry clearance) for leave to enter the United Kingdom as the family member of the EEA national or, in the case of direct descendants or dependent direct relatives in the ascending line of his spouse or his civil partner, as the family member of his spouse or his civil partner, were the EEA national or the spouse or civil partner a person present and settled in the United Kingdom.
(2) An entry clearance officer may issue an EEA family permit to an extended family member
of an EEA national who applies for one if—
(a) the relevant EEA national satisfies the condition in paragraph (1)(a);
(b) the extended family member wishes to accompany the relevant EEA national to the
United Kingdom or to join him there; and
(c) in all the circumstances, it appears to the entry clearance officer appropriate to issue the EEA family permit.
(3) Where an entry clearance officer receives an application under paragraph (2) he shall
undertake an extensive examination of the personal circumstances of the applicant and if he
refuses the application shall give reasons justifying the refusal unless this is contrary to the
interests of national security.
(4) An EEA family permit issued under this regulation shall be issued free of charge and as soon
as possible.
(5) But an EEA family permit shall not be issued under this regulation if the applicant or the
EEA national concerned falls to be excluded from the United Kingdom on grounds of public
policy, public security or public health in accordance with regulation 21. “
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http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary
Family members referred to under Article 2 of the Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament have an automatic right to join or accompany an EEA family member to another member state when that EEA national is exercising a Treaty right.
“"Family member" means:
(a) the spouse;
(b) the partner with whom the Union citizen has contracted a registered partnership, on the basis of the legislation of a Member State, if the legislation of the host Member State treats registered partnerships as equivalent to marriage and in accordance with the conditions laid down in the relevant legislation of the host Member State;
(c) the direct descendants who are under the age of 21 or are dependants and those of the spouse or partner as defined in point (b);
(d) the dependent direct relatives in the ascending line and those of the spouse or partner as defined in point (b);”
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http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex ... 123:en:PDF
According to the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006:
Regulation 7:
7.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), for the purposes of these Regulations the following persons
shall be treated as the family members of another person—
(a) his spouse or his civil partner; 7
(b) direct descendants of his, his spouse or his civil partner who are—
(i) under 21; or
(ii) dependants of his, his spouse or his civil partner;
(c) dependent direct relatives in his ascending line or that of his spouse or his civil partner;
(d) a person who is to be treated as the family member of that other person under paragraph (3)
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http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary
The UKBA website states:
“In assessing an application from an EEA national's direct family member, the entry clearance officer(ECO) should be satisfied that:
the applicant is the family member of the EEA national (marriage certificate, birth certificate or other evidence of family link)
the EEA national is residing in the UK in accordance with the EEA Regulations (as qualified person (exercising treaty rights) if more than 3 months) and the non-EEA national is joining them; or the EEA national intends to travel to the UK within 6 months and will have a right to reside under the Regulations on arrival, and the non-EEA national will be accompanying or joining the EEA national; and
if applying as a spouse or civil partner, there are no grounds to consider that the marriage or civil partnership is one of convenience; and
if applying as dependent family members (dependent children 21 and over and dependent relatives) they are dependent on the EEA national or the EEA national's spouse or civil partner; and
neither the applicant nor the EEA national should be excluded from the UK on the grounds of public policy, public security or public health.”
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http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... /eun/eun2/
UKBA on stepchildren:
“Decisions on accepting children seeking admission under the EEA Regulations as family
members who are stepchildren, adopted children or foster children should be no more
favourable than under the relevant parts of the immigration rules. In practice this means that
all stepchildren are acceptable but adopted and foster children need to meet the
requirements of the relevant paragraphs of part 8 of the immigration rules (other than those
relating to entry clearance).”
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http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary
My stepdaughter fulfills all of these requirements and there are no grounds for refusing her entry.
As to the reason I quote as my wife’s residency being “uncertain”, my wife’s application for the residence card is being processed, as you can see from the certificate of application included. It is even stated that it was checked out and that the ECO is aware that the application is being processed! We cannot be held responsible for the long processing times of the UKBA. I also do not understand why this is an issue, seeing as it is an EEA family permit, and my wife does not need to function as proxy. To top it all off, it is not actually required for my wife to apply for a residence card. It is clearly stated on the UKBA website:
“You do not need to obtain documents confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a family member of an EEA national.”
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http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... ts-family/
“After entry to the UK the holder can apply to the Home Office for a residence card. A residence card (an endorsement in the holder's passport) enables the holder to re-enter the UK without the need for an EEA family permit for as long as they are the family member of an EEA national with a right of residence in the UK. A residence card, which is normally valid for five years, is simply a confirmation of the holder's right of residence in the UK - it is not a compulsory requirement.”
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http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... /eun/eun2/
And it’s not like the EEA family permit expiring has any bearing on my wife’s legal status to remain here, considering we still meet the EEA Regulations:
“As long as the non-EEA family member of an EEA national continues to meet the EEA Regulations they would not be considered as having 'overstayed' simply because the expiry date of their EEA family permit had passed.”
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http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... g/eun/eun2
The idea that my wife’s status in the UK is “uncertain” is preposterous because as long as she is my wife, she has a right to be here. As the above quotations show, she needs neither an EEA family permit, nor a residence card to be a legal resident. My wife having, or not having either of these documents, have no bearing on my stepdaughter getting an EEA family permit.
This has caused us much undue stress, as we had expected for my stepdaughter at the least to get through, so that we might have her over by the middle of June, and get her used to the culture, surroundings, behavior and climate of a new country, before she starts school this August. We have to look at schools, get her registered at one, register her with our GP, and prepare her for the coming year. This has been a considerable setback in our schedule. Not to mention the emotional harm of keeping a daughter from her parents she already hasn’t seen in over half a year, and now it seems like we might be risking missing her birthday as well, a heartwrenching affair for which I feel terribly guilty.
I hope reading this appeal will make the UKBA realize previously a mistake was made and this will be rectified as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Ernest Ropers
