Application refused for EEA citizen based on residency

[fmiky]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone could share a thought on my case.

Recently my application has been refused because I did not provide Document Certifying Permanent Residence. Instead I provided Registration Certificate which I thought was sufficient and did prove my residency. I applied for it instead of the other one as a Czech citizen, 11 years in the UK, worked every day since I came here, married to a British citizen, never had issue with law... would not expect any issue to be honest. Call me dumb but I have been through all the paperwork before I have sent it out over and over and I did not identify this could be an issue. The UK residence documentation is after all completely the same only inside of it the type does not say "Document Certifying Permanent Residence" but "Registration Certificate"! :/

Anyway, mistake has been made by me and I will have to go through all this once again to get all these forms filled up. What I do not understand is how can it be justified (or even legal) to take my £1200 to "cover the cost of handling and processing your application" when all they did was to open up the envelope, have a look at the document, found out that it is not the right one and sent me a template letter back. Done! They did not even have to have a look at the rest of the application and do a full assessment. Is this crazy or what? I would understand I would be fined if I provided untruthful information somewhere and this was the fine. Is this money making bureaucracy at it's best or what?

Is there anything I can do at all to get my money back?

Thanks,
Frank

[CR001]

If your application is refused, you lose your fee. It is your responsibility to make sure that you meet ALL the requirements. A document certifying PR has been a mandatory requirement since November 2015.

[salmintin]

The requirements state very clearly that you must have the document. You didn't, therefore you didn't meet the requirements, therefore there wasn't much point for them to continue with your application knowing that you will be refused anyway...

Sadly there is no way to get a refund. Go over to the EEA forum to read more about DCPR.

[fmiky]

I do not doubt that the rules have been followed in my case however I would argue whether these rules are reasonably set or even legal. Provided a full assessment of my application has been carried out I would agree that since a lot of checks is required the amount paid is justified. However, in my case, someone just pulled out everything from the envelope, saw that PR document is not the right one and put everything back into the pre-printed envelope with their generic response. That is not £1200 worth of service. That is just a money making scam.