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?