EEA family permit/registration certificate

[soloblue]

Dear All
I am an Italian citizen living in london.
My partner is indonesian and we are planning to marry in the summer in Indonesia, as his fiance visa was refused (on the basis that I did not present a registration certificate, which I do not require to have but they requested anyway).

My question is:
- is it required for me to have a registration certificate to apply to the family permit for him to come over after the marriage? Was any of you asked for it?
- how long does it take to get the family permit?

Thank you very much

[Obie]

The requirement under paragraph 290 is you have to be a qualified person. A registration certificate only confirm you are a qualified person, it confers no right. You can demonstrate this by other means such as providing payslips or p60 or evidence of self sufficiency.

If you provided all these evidence and application was refused due to lack of Registration certificate, you may want to consider appealing.

[soloblue]

Indeed, this was also my understanding this is why I had provided other evidences (in accordance with UKBA webpage) but the officer refused the VISA. We have appealed but that could take a long time and even at this time, they might never respond.

Therefore I need to know whether for the family permit it is required or not, as if I apply for the registration certificate now that will slow down a lot the process as my passport will be with the home office for months!

Thank you
Emanuela

[Jambo]

A. A Residence Certificate is not needed for EEA family permit (the same it is not needed for the fiance visa).
B. if you decide to apply for a residence certificate, you can send you national ID and not a passport.
C. Process time for Residence Certificate nowadays is 4-6 weeks.

[soloblue]

Thank you for the response, I guess I had the bad luck to find an officer that does not know the European law!

About the registration, the home office told me "up to six months" however I do believe it will be shorter.

Could you kindly advise how complicated it is to prepare the form for the family permit, the form seems to require a lot of information basically almost like the fiancee VISA and a solicitor firm asked me 3000 pounds to help me with it...which makes me wonder whether it is really difficult.
According to the solicitor that helped me with the appeal, our fiance VISA application was done to high standards, even if I prepared with no help. Therefore I expect to be able to prepare the family permit documents however having a solicitor to help might make it stronger?
Is there somewhere on this forum some advise on the family permit procedure?

Thank you again for the prompt responses...it is of great support also for the spirit!!

[Obie]

Registration Certificate should be issued immediately on application once the necessary documents have been provided.

It can be issued at PEO but they said, an appointment has to be booked 2 months in advance, for what exactly? I don't know.

Once you go there you should be able to get it on the same day.

£3000 for an EEA family Permit seems very expensive.

You could do it yourself, or seek a considerable cheaper assistance if you are not confident.

[soloblue]

Just for general information...for the registration certificate, it is not possible for an European to use the same day service, I went to Croydon in person to find out as they were not answering the phone and this was confirmed to myself. Then I managed to speak to them over the phone and they confirmed that it was not possible to book an appointment for EEA1 form, this is because they give priority to the non-EU people.


Thank you

[Jambo]

the form seems to require a lot of information basically almost like the fiancee VISA

The forms looks the same as they are both based on the same template. However, large sections of the form are irrelevant for EEA family permit (anything to do with accommodation, finance or the non EEA employment).

You don't really need a professional help with filling in the form. It is quite simple.

See similar discussion here.

[soloblue]

Jambo

Thank you but I believe at the moment there is no point to argue with UKBA, they do not reason and the worse is that it is basically impossible to communicate with them -
so if someone fills in sections saying "not required/EEA" it is probably just a way to irritate the officer.
I will provide all the documents and as they are similar to what provided for the fiance VISA (which were accepted and the officer stated that we had a strong evidence of our relation), it should be too difficult or time consuming.
The problem is when they ask things such as "have you lived with the person before like in a marriage", how much weight such question does have? as people like in my case obviously only had limited time together in the same country....
it is all a question of luck, depending on the good day or not of the officer, this is the sad and against human rights truth - and as I said before, with the UK, there is no way to communicate with them or somehow be protected.
In other countries it is still a bit more human...but again, in my case, I cannot that easily settle somewhere else as my work and life is in the UK now.

Is there a tribunal for human rights to support people in our situations or does someone really need to be prepared to spend a huge amount of money in lawyer to be able to be with his/her loved one?
Thank you

[Jambo]

Sending irrelevant information might also "irritate" the officer. I don't agree with the "I will send everything I got" approach. Sometimes this backfires as the ECO can cherry pick ammunition against you in the evidence (and we had cases like that reported).

What you need is to make the ECO understand that you know the requirements and the laws. This can be achieved with a strong cover letter. Better than just a print of all your Skype chat for the past 6 months. This will also help the ECO to "remember" that he should treat the application under EEA regulations and not the UK immigration rules he is more used to.

The requirements for EEA Family Permit are very simple. In your case, you need to show that you are exercising treaty rights (easy to produce evidence) and that you are married and this is not a marriage of convenience. I would concentrate in providing evidence to prove the relationship than providing unneeded evidence (such as your finances or how many rooms you got in your house).

[soloblue]

Jumbo

Thank you for your response, however skype records (not all of it, just the pages showing the date of calls, to prove we called everyday) is a way to prove the relationship, as we could not supply phone bills records. Certainly I agree with you, it is better to use a bit of rational and put yourself in the mind of the officer when preparing the documents, and think what he would need and how he/she would 'interpret' them.

With regards to finance requirement for the non EU partner, does it all need to be demostrated as requested by the form? I was surprised to read what it is required on the form for someone that has his own business, as for the fiancee VISA there was no such requirement.

Cheers
Emanuela

[Jambo]

As I said before finance or employment of the non EEA national are not relevant for a decision.

[soloblue]

Jambo

Thank you, I ask as they listed it as one of the documents required...this is the information provided in Jakarta. I was very surprised as if someone has his own small business, it is a bit more difficult to prove, due to how it works in Indonesia.

Cheers!

[keffers]

The forms looks the same as they are both based on the same template. However, large sections of the form are irrelevant for EEA family permit (anything to do with accommodation, finance or the non EEA employment).

Does it not depend on who is applying for a family permit? If it is an extended family member applying on the basis of dependency, then some questions relating to finance would be relevant.