EEA Family Permit Refused - Urgent HELP needed - Marriage of

[georgen]

Hi,

I wonder if you guys can help me. My wife (Albanian National) was refused an EEA family permit on the grounds that the ECO believes that this is a marriage of convenience Image attached.
Link to image: http://pasteboard.co/1w1SDRuX.jpg

Here is a short rough timeline.
We met in 1998, married in 1999 had two kids one in 2001 and the other 2004. We have lived in Greece since 1998.
I came to the UK in September 2015, started working full time October 2015 and I’m currently employed, I earn about £1100 after tax.
My kids joined me in February 2016, one has started school and the other is awaiting a placement.
In my wifes application we included:
Her passport, my passport, marriage certificate, a joint bank statement from Greece, here right of residence card from Greece (which is given on the basis of being married to a Greek Citizen), my utility bills, council tax, payslips, p60, letter from employer/accountant.
Basically the ground for refusal is that she has not provided any documents to demonstrate that we are in a genuine subsisting relationship.
Considering I have been married with her for so long, having had two kids and lived together in Greece just before I came here I thought that would be enough.
I generally speak to her for 2-3 hours a day using skype on a VOIP app from the i phone so I have no idea how to get the logs from these apps to show that I am in contact.
I have done a little bit of searching and found this article, which by the sounds of it her application should not have been refused, this is taken from : here https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... onvenience

10. EUN2.10 What if I suspect a marriage / civil partnership of convenience?
When a marriage / civil partnership of convenience is suspected, the burden of proof is high and rests with the ECO. However, in these cases the ECO is entitled to interview the applicant. Factors to consider include:

an adverse immigration history;
doubts about the validity of documentation;
application follows soon after the marriage / civil partnership;
no previous evidence of the relationship.
The ECO should not consider the following cases as marriages / civil partnerships of convenience where:

there is a child of the relationship;
there is evidence to suggest cohabitation.

There is an appeal form in there but I think that route is too long and I believe re-applying might be a better solution, my questions are these:
1. Should I include the refusal letter of the first application indicating the mistake (if indeed it is a mistake) that the fact that we have two kids together has been overlooked?
2. Should I include family photos stretching back the last 17 years or so?
3. Will screenshots of the conversations help?
4. Should I include a family certificate?
5. What else can I include to strengthen my case?

I would appreciate any help or advise on this matter, hopefully I have included as much information as possible to get some concrete answers from your experience.

Thanks and I look forward to any replies or advise.

George

[noajthan]

Most unfortunate.

This has happened to other good, honest, long-married couples recently too.

For example:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 07507.html

Best bet is to reapply with more evidence as you yourself have suggested.

You can see that is what the other member had to do even though the HO caseworker was clearly at fault.
(She was lucky the 2nd time around and is now in UK).

Good luck.

[Obie]

You may apply and reapply so you will not have wasted time if there is a further refusal .

[georgen]

Hi,
Thank you so much for the information, at least i now know that it is clearly a mistake they have made. I will draft a letter and post the contents of it here just so that you can tell me how it sounds and if i should re-word it differently to not sound like i'm specifically putting blame.

I will update this hopefully tonight.

On the new application form it has a question about being refused entry i think, do i put this refusal permit decision on there or not?

Also FYI : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... meron.html

Thanks

[georgen]

Hi Guys,

I have written this letter. Do you think it's enough to explain what went wrong in the first application and a good indication of it not to happen again?



Thanks

[noajthan]

+1

Looks good.
Well-argued.

Suggestions...

Suggest add in this point too:

the burden of proof is high and rests with the ECO

As well as the hyperlink, add the name/title of the webpage/guidance.

There may be something in this Appeal Court ruling that you can refer to too:
https://www.freemovement.org.uk/court-o ... me-office/

Suggest revisit the spacing and layout to make it easy to read. There are also one or 2 typos to tidy up.

Add your contact details to the letter (don't publish here!).
Add any HO reference number as a cross-reference (if you have one).

At the end of the letter suggest finish on a high don't just fizzle out - write a concluding sentence asking the caseworker to consider and to decide based on your clarification and based on HO's own guidance criteria.
Then thank them for their kind attention!

Good luck.

[Noetic]

That reads like a very level headed, well argued response even though you must be rather upset in this situation. Good luck!

[georgen]

Hi,

Thanks for your comments. I will add these to the letter and hopefully this will help my wifes case.

I will let you know of the outcome.

Regards,

George