I applied for a visitor family permit in July 2016 using the Surinder Singh route and was granted a FP to travel to the UK for six months. I'm an American citizen who was resident in Spain with my UK husband and normally could have travelled from Spain to the UK without a travel family permit but I did this to test the SS credentials in advance of applying directly to the home office.
I arrived with my infant son to meet my husband in October (he came over a month earlier) and then submitted an application to the Home Office in February 2017. Just this week I received a letter saying they have not yet processed my application but that I need to fill in an additional form. It's a questionnaire and it says that I need to meet the conditions of regulation 9.
Can anyone provide me guidance on how to answer some of these? I read the thread on how they have changed SS law and are trying to prevent certain people from getting a residency permit but I'm not sure if I'm one of the people they want to exclude or not.
I did live with my husband in the UK before we were married and before we left the UK for Spain but I was on a valid Tier II visa at the time and working in London. I quit my job and we decided to leave the UK and travel for six months and then move to Spain. We got married in Gibraltar on the way and he secured a job at a private school. We moved there and obtained residency permits, adopted a dog, then my son was born there in December 2015. We lived in Spain for two years.
How should I answer these? Can anyone advise?
9. What was the reason you went to live in the EEA host country?
Joe had health concerns and was in and out of A&E with severe gastro-intestinal issues that had also caused severe depression. We decided we would leave our London jobs and move to a warmer climate to see if his health improved. We had been on many trips to Spain so we decided to move there and start a new life. He looked for work and was hired as a full time English teacher at the Almunecar International School and we needed to arrive at the end of August for his orientation and the start of the school year.
SHOULD I LEAVE OUT THE PERSONAL DETAILS ABOUT LEAVING ENGLAND AND JUST SAY WE MOVED BECAUSE HE GOT A JOB?
10. How did you spend your time in the EEA host country?
When we first arrived I did some freelance PR work for an international startup, Lasso-it, also called Lingua.ly. We rescued a puppy and I went through puppy training with him which led to us becoming very involved in fostering dogs with a local rescue operation. I occasionally wrote test-task items for Cambridge Michigan as a freelance item developer and began doing part-time work on a website called Upwork. I became pregnant in Spring 2015 with our son and attended birth classes to prepare for his arrival, while continuing the host foster dog activity. In 2016 I was taking care of our infant son.
SHOULD I MENTION THE REMOTE FREELANCE JOB I HAD IF IT WAS NOT BASED IN SPAIN? MY SPANISH ADDRESS IS ON THE JOB CONTRACT. DO THEY WANT TO SEE I WAS WORKING OR NOT? I CAN SEND THEM TEN PAGES OF TIMESHEETS FOR THE UPWORK CONTRACT WORK BUT IT IS A US SITE SO ALSO NOT SPANISH
16. Why did the BC decide to move back to the UK from the EEA host country?
We wanted to be closer to his family so our child could get to know his grandparents and aunt and uncle.
IS THIS A GOOD ENOUGH REASON? I ALSO HAD A PHD OFFER LETTER FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM BUT I"M GUESSING I SHOULD NOT MENTION THIS?
20. Have you and the British citizen lived together in any countries other than the UK or the EEA host country? If yes, please provide details including dates and any supporting evidence.
Yes, we lived together in Cyprus for a month in March 2014. We also lived in the United States for two months from the end of May to early July 2014 at a house I co-own with my mother
DOES A MONTH HERE AND A MONTH THERE COUNT AS LIVING TOGETHER? AT THE TIME WE WERE COLLECTING EVIDENCE THAT WE HAD CONTINUED RESIDENCE AND WERE LONGTERM PARTNERS IN THE EVENT THAT WE DIDN"T DECIDE TO GET MARRIED SO I DO HAVE A LETTER FROM THE HOTEL IN CYPRUS . WOULD IT BE BETTER TO JUST SAY NO HERE?
21. Why did you make an application under the Surinder Singh ruling and not the domestic UK Immigration Rules?
We made an application under the Surinder Singh ruling because if we were to have made an application under the UK Immigration rules I would have had to leave my home in Spain and return to the United States, which was not my country of residence at the time and in which neither I nor our infant son had medical insurance, in order to submit the visa application and await the decision. Me and my child (who is a UK and US citizen and Spanish resident) would have been removed from our home (all of our things were moved from Spain straight to the UK) and our family would have been separated.
IS THIS A GOOD REASON? HAVE I PHRASED IT CORRECTLY?
In addition to this, there's some bullet points at the start which look exactly like what I had to fill out for the original application.
- Do I need to submit more evidence from the past six months proving he is in the UK and has been working? I already submitted his job contract in February but it's July now and they seem to be asking for the same stuff.
-It also seems to ask something different about the accomodaotions, asking about the nature and quality. We rented a two bedroom villa for two years-- should I send pictures?
Lastly, I submitted our passports with the original application and then requested them back. Should I re-submit them?
It says "If you or your British sponsor have not submitted your valid, in date passport in support of this application, you must do so now." but it also says "You do not have to submit any information or evidence which you have already provided as part of your application."
Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
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