I asked the HO about this myself and received a very definite answer that this would not be possible. However, "very definite answers" from one person are frequently contradicted by just as definite answers from other people of the same organisation. There does not seem to be a real answer, I think.

What I would do in your case is: Once you get a new Family Permit which is valid for 6 months, immediately apply for the registration card and just as immediately ask for your passport to be returned. (I'm sure this will require some prodding on your part - but they are obliged to do return your passport as you are otherwise not able to exercise your right of free movement.) This has no influence on your application, and you will be able to travel in and out of the country on the valid FP for the rest of the six months. After five months, let them know that you are aware of the legal situation and that they will have to issue a registration card within six months. Have a look at http://www.easyexpat.com/forums/ftopic_14040.htm for this - they violate both their own laws as well as European legislation if they don't issue the card within 6 months. This should wake them up - and I would think that the document will then be issued just in time before the FP expires.
Good luck!
Sebastian

 

Return of passports

please visit the following website secificlly desigend to answer your question:

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applyi ... fpassports

hope this helps. good luck.

 

Oh - I hadn't really taken in this part before. Very annoying! Don't really know what to recommend.
I now also understand why you need to apply for a new Family Permit outside of the EU - you can only apply from within the EU if you are "legally resident" (which you are as a visitor), but you can only do this if you are in possession of a Schengen visa. Grrr!

 

Actually, we even sent normal copies of our passports. This was sufficient to "start the clock". I very much doubt that anybody had a look at the application until a few months later. According to the letter of the law you probably don't even need to include those, because the Home Office has to give you the opportunity to hand in the passport later.

Once the waiting time was over (just under 2 months for EEA1 and EEA2 together), we got a letter asking for the passport to be sent to the Home Office within 3 weeks. Funny enough this letter got posted second class, so one week was already over when we got it (yes, I absolutely believe they are a bunch of chaotic bureaucrats).

I know this seems to contradict the information on the web page and given by the Home Office phone service, but it is easy to see how this happened. If you look at the web page http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applyi ... fpassports, it is perfectly obvious that it is written for normal visa applications, and not for applications under European law. The only sentence that mentions the European law is clearly an afterthought, standing in direct contradiction to the previous sentence.

Now the phone service seems to be outsourced to India (judging by the accent), and while they try to be helpful, they actually just read the web page to you. Given the inaccuracies of the web page, this obviously cannot produce reliable results.

One more note: before the Home Office removed the Chapter 5 of the European Casework Instructions from the web site, you could find the following paragraph in there:

1.9 Six-month rule
Community law requires us to decide applications for a residence card within 6 months from the date of receipt of the application. Every effort should be made to do so, particularly where an applicant draws our attention to an alleged breach of this requirement. Failure to comply with this requirement could leave the Home Office open to a claim for damages

I sometimes wonder whether this paragraph was the reason the document got pulled. In any case, it cannot hurt to mention in the cover letter that you expect a response within 6 months, as determined by the applicable European and national law.