Belgian visa in London - what a nightmare

[ca.funke]

And here is another email from Solvit:

Article 3 of the Directive does state that, in order for a citizen to demonstrate eligibility to apply for rights under the Directive, they need to demonstrate that, if the family member of an EU national, they are either travelling with, or to meet, their EU family member.

I do appreciate that it is confusing. I shall check my understanding, and hope to respond to you shortly.

Is there anybody who could be of some help to understand what is happening?

Thanks.

The passage which causes confusion:

Article 3
Beneficiaries
1. This Directive shall apply to all Union citizens who move
to or reside in a Member State other than that of which they
are a national, and to their family members as defined in point
2 of Article 2 who accompany or join them.

Problems:

• move to or reside in
  • "reside in" is pretty clear
  • does "move to" include "going there for a visit" (="moving around"), or does it only encompass "moving" as in "permanently changing your usual residence"?
• accompany or join
  • accompany is pretty clear(="travelling together")
  • "join" however, can have a myriad of meanings, and also it´s unclear how to prove it. (Is the "joinee" supposed to pick you up at the border/port? Or does he just have to be in the country? How are you going to prove either of the above?)
• In general, looking at the law in different languages (I only understand German, English, Dutch and Frensh), reveals the translations to add confusion through not being exact.

So the answer that you´re waiting for now will depend on what language the clerk speaks, and whom he asks. It´s (unfortunately) never "the one and only" correct answer as you might expect, you´ll get different answers throughout.

Quite unbelievable, but (sadly) true...

[novita]

I wonder why these european governments are always complaining about people not abiding to the rules when they are the one penalising those who want to do so. What's the point of voting laws with no intention of putting them into practice? Family members of EU citizen are not supposed to pay any single penny for their applications but yet we are compelled to do so by embassies. Can somebody explain to me how a visa I am supposed to get under simplified and accelerated procedure take 8 months? As for Solvit their process is too long and if they were really effective with the amount of complaints they receive, embassies would have already changed their ways.

Sorry guys, but I am just frustated. My children have to wait for weeks before they can see their Dad i.e when we can afford a train tickets and they are so expensive on week-ends. My husband has to pay 2 rents, bills in two differents houses,etc.. and God knows he is not a millionnaire,we can no longer carry on like this. I can't work because I have a 2 months old baby and I can no longer stand my son's cries when his Dad is leaving. Why do we have to go trough all this?

I will definitately travel without a visa and I will keep you posted on how it went.

[murielvcb]

I wonder why these european governments are always complaining about people not abiding to the rules when they are the one penalising those who want to do so. What's the point of voting laws with no intention of putting them into practice? Family members of EU citizen are not supposed to pay any single penny for their applications but yet we are compelled to do so by embassies. Can somebody explain to me how a visa I am supposed to get under simplified and accelerated procedure take 8 months? As for Solvit their process is too long and if they were really effective with the amount of complaints they receive, embassies would have already changed their ways.

Sorry guys, but I am just frustated. My children have to wait for weeks before they can see their Dad i.e when we can afford a train tickets and they are so expensive on week-ends. My husband has to pay 2 rents, bills in two differents houses,etc.. and God knows he is not a millionnaire,we can no longer carry on like this. I can't work because I have a 2 months old baby and I can no longer stand my son's cries when his Dad is leaving. Why do we have to go trough all this?

I will definitately travel without a visa and I will keep you posted on how it went.

I wish you good luck with this, when are you going to Belgium?

[novita]

Here is an update about my case. My husband sent a very "electric" email to the manager of the department dealing with family reunification in the Office des etrangers last tuesday. On wednesday she sent an email of apologies to my husband and she asked him to fax his last 3 months payslips and a health insurance cover for me. He did that on thursday and yesterday(friday) a decision to grant me a long stay visa was made. They said that they will return my passport in the next few days.

I hope the next few days will not turn into weeks. My question is if a decision can be made within a day, why do they have to delay people's applications for months? Hope this nightmare is really coming to an end.