Surinder Singh related case update
Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:16 am
Hi, I have asked a few questions here about my case, and people have been helpful so I thought I would give an update that might be useful to people in the future.
I had been living and working in Ireland for two years and was made unemployed at the end of it, and claimed state benefit for about ten months until I was offered a job in the UK. My wife of six years who is Chinese and has been with me the whole time, who has a residents card for Ireland and worked there applied for an EEA family permit, and was refused twice because of difficulties with documentation. The third (and final) time she was granted the visa.
Now I was informed by immigration here in the UK that she would be denied the visa, because I had been claiming state benefit in Ireland, however I supplied plenty documentation showing that I was actively looking for work, both showing interview invitations and letters from people I had been contacting regarding jobs.
Although I was claiming benefit, my wife was working also, meaning that we were mostly self sufficient (my benefit was inadequate to cover even our rent)
I also referred in the cover letter to EC directive 2004/38/EC 7.3 and also ruling Collins (2004) ECR 1-2703 which states that Union citizens are entitled to equal treatment in regard to all matters falling within the material scope of the Treaty; it is no longer possible to exclude job seekers from the scope of the application of Article 39(2) which provides for the general right to equal treatment benefits of a financial nature for work seekers.
I am not sure how relevant these were to the application or granting of it, and it may just have been that they granted it to shut me up (I can be pretty damn persistant)
I hope this update can be of assistance to others who were in our situation
JB.
I had been living and working in Ireland for two years and was made unemployed at the end of it, and claimed state benefit for about ten months until I was offered a job in the UK. My wife of six years who is Chinese and has been with me the whole time, who has a residents card for Ireland and worked there applied for an EEA family permit, and was refused twice because of difficulties with documentation. The third (and final) time she was granted the visa.
Now I was informed by immigration here in the UK that she would be denied the visa, because I had been claiming state benefit in Ireland, however I supplied plenty documentation showing that I was actively looking for work, both showing interview invitations and letters from people I had been contacting regarding jobs.
Although I was claiming benefit, my wife was working also, meaning that we were mostly self sufficient (my benefit was inadequate to cover even our rent)
I also referred in the cover letter to EC directive 2004/38/EC 7.3 and also ruling Collins (2004) ECR 1-2703 which states that Union citizens are entitled to equal treatment in regard to all matters falling within the material scope of the Treaty; it is no longer possible to exclude job seekers from the scope of the application of Article 39(2) which provides for the general right to equal treatment benefits of a financial nature for work seekers.
I am not sure how relevant these were to the application or granting of it, and it may just have been that they granted it to shut me up (I can be pretty damn persistant)
I hope this update can be of assistance to others who were in our situation
JB.