Forum Immigration UK

[thsths]

Hi everybody

After 6 months, the Home Office has actually responded to the complaint I sent about the handling of European applications (EEA FP, EEA1, EEA2). Not surprising, they fail to see any problems, and they hide behind the letter of the law. Of course this also means ignoring the spirit of the law, which I completely expected. But there are two points where I think the Home Office is clearly failing to meet the requirements.

The first one is the fact that they refuse to issue an EEA FP within the UK. The reasoning is: "Given that their purpose is to facilitate entry, it would be inappropriate to have them issued within the UK. In terms of the European Directive, admission to Member states is covered by Article 5. At no point does this say that EEA family permits are to be issued within the Member States." I would disagree here, because 5(2) actually says: "Member States shall grant such persons every facility to obtain the necessary visas." Maybe I am naive, but clearly within the UK would be included in this. And in 5(4) it even says that the visa should be obtainable at the border control, which is (unless you split hairs) within the Member State.

The other point is the amount of misinformation produced by the Home Office, which has been discussed here many times. Article 34 says: "Member States shall disseminate information concerning the rights and obligations of Union citizens and their family members on the subjects covered by this Directive...". And the Home Office is clearly not taking this serious.

Of course the question is whether it is worth escalating this. The amount of questions in this group concerning the EEA Family Permit tells me that this is an important issue. However, I also heard that other Member States are showing even less respect for the Directive 2004/38 (especially Ireland), so I am not sure that a complaint to the European Commission would have effect. Any recommendations? Or is anybody prepared to help?

[EasyExpat]

...escalating to ? European Court of Justice? I thought about writing to them regarding a piece of legislation (no immigration related) that is preventing free competition and fairness... no time to do it now (i need to gather evidence) but one day.... it pisses me off when administration or individual just say: "oh but that's how it works because we have orders to proceed such way, so this is legal". No this is not always, and thanks to Europe now can be disputed!

[sebhoff]

...escalating to? European Court of Justice?

Hi all - I went incommunicado for the last month or so. Long story - but basically I couldn't focus on this for a while. In previous posts I had indicated that I was keen to write up a petition to the European Parliament, and I still think that this might be a viable option.
In terms of legal steps, these would only be possible, I think, if the Home Office actually breaches the law. This is the case when they take longer than 6 months. From what I found in my countless searches on the net, the place to sue them would be a UK court. The reason for this is that the EU directive has been "transposed" (that's the correct word, I think) and is therefore UK law now.
Complaints about mis- and non-information on the other hand will be much more difficult to address - but the UK may feel slightly embarrassed if their miserable behaviour is exposed in the European Parliament (which might be a result of a successful petition). After having lived here for a year, though, I have little hope that anything will result in drastic changes (in a positive direction).
In my experience, the people of the immigration enquiry bureau appear to have wisened up a bit. While I repeatedly received blatantly wrong information earlier this year about options to travel while a European application is in progress, they now seem to be better informed.
In any case, I'm happy to contribute to anything that might improve the situation for future "immigration victims". My wife has her passport back now, but this doesn't mean that I have to sit back and relax...
Sebastian

PS: The fact that the Irish authorities are even worse than the British ones does not mean that we have to accept what the HO does....