Situation: I'm Lithuanian currently studying in the UK (exercising treaty rights). I've been in the UK for nearly 3 years already. In October 2012 I married with my Russian wife. I know her since December 2011 but because of our current situation we're able to meet only during holidays. To be exact, we met for a weekend in Stockholm (Feb 2012), less than a month in the UK (May/Jun 2012), a month in Lithuania (Sep/Oct 2012), a month in Lithuania again (Dec 2012/Jan 2013) and now we're spending our holiday together in Lithuania once again. By the way, in Lithuania we always stayed at my parents and we married in Lithuania too.
Problem: In January 2012 we applied for EEA Family permit in Warsaw together, as everybody from Lithuania has to apply in Warsaw. However, we did not provide enough supporting documents and I absolutely with the refusal. It was our mistake as we did not know much about EEA FP and thought the marriage certificate was enough. The refusal description was clear and outlines thing we had to provide next time to get the permit.
Unfortunately, our holiday by then finished and we could not apply together again. My wife next time applied for the EEA Family Permit alone in Moscow. We provided many supporting documents, however our application was refused once again. Here is the refusal form:
About the refusal: Regarding the first key point about the finances, it seems that the clearance officer is looking to the current balance and not the constant income. I do not find it to be fair. Moreover, it seems I gave a statement of past 6 months without a reason as the very last page would be enough. Additionally, I have a tenancy agreement and now I think it might be useful for the application but it's lying in the desk back in the UK and our appointment is early next week.Your Application
You have applied for admission to the United Kingdom by virtue of European Community Law as the family member of a European Economic Area national who is exercising, or wishes to exercise, rights of free movement under the Treaty of Rome in the United Kingdom.
The Decision
- It is reasonable for Member States to be satisfied that EU citizens have sufficient resources for themselves and their family members not to become a burden on the social assistance system of the host Member State. Yourself and your sponsor are both students and the EEA National appears to rely on financial support from his parents in Lithuania. I note that you have provided a bank statement from Swedbank in the name of your father-in-law ***** ***** from Swedbank which shows a balance of *****. I do not consider these funds to be sufficient to adequately maintain and accommodate you in the UK without becoming a burden on the social assistance system. Furthermore sufficient resources also includes comprehensive sickness insurance, you have not provided evidence of this. There is no information before me to show the EEA National is self sufficient. In the absence of satisfactory information to show that the EEA National and his family members will not be reliant on social assistance in the UK, I am not satisfied that you qualify for an EEA Family Permit. Regulation 13 of EEA Regulations 2006 has not been met.
- You and your spouse are both students, you intend to relocate to the UK, where your spouse is currently studying at ***** university. Member states are also entitled to be satisfied that you are, and have been, in a genuine relationship with the EEA national. A genuine relationship extends beyond a valid marriage certificate. A subsisting relationship must be assessed on more than a prescribed list of supporting documents. History of the relationship leading to the commitment of marriage, and evidence of regular contact I support is a reasonable indicator of a subsisting relationship.
- The supporting documents before me indicate that you and the EEA national have led independent lives in different countries. You state in your supporting letter that you first met in February 2012 when you saw each other for one day in Stockholm. You previously held a visa to study English, which was issued in May 2012 and cancelled on arrival in May 2012 as the Immigration Officer was not satisfied of your intentions. I note that on this application (Moscow/1667976) you answered 'no' to question 96 which asked if you had any friends or family in the UK. You state on your supporting letter that your teacher made the application, however you were required signed the application form declaring that the documents that you had supplied with the application were genuine and that the statements that you made with the application were truthful.
- You then made a further visit visa application in July 2012 (Moscow/1722711 refers) which was refused, and I am aware that you listed his name on that application as a partner. However, there was no background information surrounding your relationship.
- You married in October 2012 after having met the EEA National on just two occasions, of which one was for a single day only. Although you have provided some photographs and brief evidence of your communications through skype, I also have considered your previous travel history and intentions of wanting to study in the UK. Based on the documents before me I am unable to conclude that your relationship is, and has been, one of substance. 'Spouse' for the purposes of Regulation 7 can reasonably be taken to refer to a marriage and relationship which is and has been subsisting.
- Importantly, the EEA national has not been deterred from exercising his treaty rights. Your supporting documentation does not allow me to conclude that your marriage with the EEA national is, and has been, one of substance. I therefore refuse your EEA family permit application because I am not satisfied that you meet all of the requirements of Regulation 12 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006.
I therefore refuse your EEA family permit application because I am not satisfied that you meet all of the requirements of Regulation 12 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006.
Now about another key point in the refusal, genuine relationship. Here the officer states my wife's immigration history. In May 2012 she was planning to study in the UK for one month. However, because of late exams in her university my wife was late for her courses in the UK. Despite of that, she thought she might then visit me. On the arrival she honestly told about the changed purpose of travel and the officer cancelled her visa. Nevertheless, she was allowed to enter the UK without a visa (I know it sounds unusual) with the condition that she will come back and her passport will stay on the border. In July 2012 she applied for the visitor visa and the application was refused. Then the officer made a mistake, we met 3 times before marriage, 2 of them for a month time each. However, we met as often (and for as long) as we were able in our situations. Despite of that we spend every day in Skype and other social networking tools/websites. I provided photographs of us together from our different meetings, including photos when we celebrated Christmas together with my parents. Furthermore, I provided extracts from our Skype, Facebook and ICQ conversations. I provided screenshots of our relationship posts from my Facebook wall as it displays dates on it too. I did not provide full conversation history. For instance, 15 MS Word pages of Skype conversation out of more than 2000 pages (now I guess it would be nearly 3000 pages already). I stated clearly that these are just extracts as I do not think there is a need to print thousands of pages (and for God sake, it's expensive). Moreover, most importantly, most of the time we were not writing but talking instead. We are a young 21st century family and obviously for us social networking is the most convenient way of getting in touch. Unfortunately, it seems this method is not acceptable for a clearance officer.
Basically, I now have an impression that clearance officers are much more 'friendly' in Warsaw than in Moscow and I believe with the documents my wife provided in Moscow, we could have gotten the permit in Warsaw. Of course, it was just a first impression but now early next week we have an appointment in Warsaw again and any tips how to approach the application would be very welcome. The main difference in our application is that this time my wife would be applying to enter the UK for a short period (4 weeks) because she has to come back to Russia for her final exams.
