EEA Stepchild

[Tobbe]

Hi

I'm an EEA citizen using treaty rights in UK for the last 5 years. My non-EEA wife has a 5 years residence card as a family member of mine. She has been in UK for over 5 years as well. My wife has a daughter with her previous husband. Her previous husband has been trying to keep their daughter from having contact with my wife. Resorting to things like moving away from South america without telling where they went and as we tracked them down to Spain they quickly moved back to South america again. We have now finally managed to establish contact with the daughter again and we would like to get her over to UK for a visit (and if she wishes, then to stay for a longer period).

My best guess is that we can get her a family permit as my step daughter but that involves things like sending over certified copies of my passport and such. I am not really willing to give him this kind of documents as he is not a very trustworthy person and who knows what he might do with it. There is history of him selling the birthday presents we sent over to keep the money for him self and such. Does anyone know if it would be possible to send our part of the documents to the British embassy abroad directly and then she turns up with her part of the documentation separately? (I have mailed them and asked but had no replies for over a week now :/ ).

Another part is that he refuses to let us know under what status they were in Spain (still trying to deny he was their even though the daughter tells us they were there and we have proof that he used his email from an internet cafe in Madrid). If they were not legal in Spain how will that affect the EEA laws?

If he doesn't want to help us out at all getting the EEA family permit from the British embassy (currently asking us for several thousand of dollars for it), is it possible for her to come on a visitor’s visa and then switch over to EEA family permit? The home office says "it might be refused" but doesn't say under which circumstances it will refuse/allow it? Could I ask for a family permit to my home country, go there and ask for a family permit back to UK?

She is 10 years old and will be travelling together with her grand mother to the UK. They are visa nationals but don’t need to apply for the visa until the border control in UK. Can I meet her at Heathrow and sort out a family permit there?

It is all strange and confusing but we need to get it sorted out quickly before he decides to disappear again so any pointers towards what might be the best/fastest way to get her over here so my wife can meet her again (after 6 years) would be appreciated.

Thank you for reading

[Docterror]

Does anyone know if it would be possible to send our part of the documents to the British embassy abroad directly and then she turns up with her part of the documentation separately?

As far as I know, it is not possible to send the papers directly to the British Embassy abroad for any visa purposes.

If they were not legal in Spain how will that affect the EEA laws?

As long as they are not applying from Spain, it is not an issue. But why bother disclose it in the first place if applying from south America?

is it possible for her to come on a visitor’s visa and then switch over to EEA family permit?

Can I meet her at Heathrow and sort out a family permit there?

Theoretically speaking you can pull it off by here in the UK without having to go back. But expect a very long fight in your hands and be thoroughly prepared. You will have to prove that you are married to your wife and the child is hers and by default yours as well.

The strongest problem that may arise is to show that the child has been granted custody to your wife during the divorce or that the father does not have any trouble with the child being resident with your wife and you, which I think will be tough from what you describe.

But for the European rules that should govern this case see this link http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/docume ... iew=Binary

[Tobbe]

Ouch, it never crossed my mind while scanning through all information that maybe we would need to prove that her father agrees with her staying here to get a family permit. The way he is using her as a “credit cardâ€

[VictoriaS]

You'll need the fathers permission for a visit visa as well.

As for the documents - can't the grandmother deal with it?

Victoria

[Tobbe]

The grand mother is on the father’s side of the family (they live together all 3 and went to Spain together). If you need permission from both parents then something must have been dodgy with their Spanish detour.

Guess we just need to get our self a lawyer to handle the papers for us and hope he doesn’t pull any more tricks to stop her from travelling.

[VictoriaS]

Ah.

If you would like any assistance, please PM me.

Victoria

[Tobbe]

We have finally got my wife's daughter over here now, on a normal tourist visa though. As they passed immigration control the officials were less then helpful and seemed to try to find any reason they could to deny a tourist visa.
We had a invitation letter, pay slips, bank statements and a witnessed statement from the father that he allows his daughter to travel to the UK. They told her "Your mother has been doing bad things here in the UK and any attempt to stay will be denied by the home office". Obviously that makes us wonder a bit since my wife has never overstayed, worked illegal or been in any kind of troubles at all, what kind of registers does the immigration officers have access to? Can we access them through the data protection act? Or are they just trying to scare us for not having a family permit?

The reason for the father to not help us out with a family permit turned out to be the fact that he gained full custody by telling the court that my wife had just left him and never contacted him again. They put a notice in a few national newspapers over 3 months to try to locate her and when they couldn't he received full custody. We do have receipts of him receiving money from us during the same time... some people just never stops surprising you. Which means a family permit and staying in UK is out of the question anyway at the moment so why would they go down the route of "your mother has been doing bad things"?

If it turns out that the daughter wants to stay and that we can actually overturn the custody ruling I have another question. If she goes back to her country and after a few months when we have sorted the custody, must she clear the home office rules for family immigration (i.e both parents must live in the UK) or do we need full custody? If we overturn the ruling within the 6 months visa she has can we ask for a EEA family residence card without going back (highly unlikely that we will be able to do it as fast as that though)?