Hi lynneg,i'm so happy for you on the receipt of your passport & residency card.I was like...WOW!! how lucky.I hope mine comes soon cos i've completely run out of patience.My mp sent a copy of the letter he sent to the home office after i complained to him,hence i'm waiting for their reponce to him.Once again congrats and i wish you all the best,its been a long road after all the waiting.

 

Sad it's even worse than it used to be...

I'm only an infrequent visitor in this forum these days - we got our residence card some time in 2007, after a frustrating period of (only!) just over four months of feeling caught in the cage called Britain. We managed to speed things up a *little* by declaring my grandfather's general condition to be a medical emergency.
I sympathize with everyone who is going through this ordeal - and I'm sad to see that the whole situation has become even more pathetically ludicrous since then. My family and I are leaving Britain again in summer - and while I will of course be missing some aspects of my life (and particularly work) here, institutions such as the Home Office make it very easy for me to say goodbye. After more than 2 1/2 years in the country, I'm still baffled by the way things work (or don't work) in Britain - and the fact that the Brits don't really seem to mind/care. I'm afraid I see no hope in trying to get help from the "natives" to speed up the process - they expect things not to work efficiently as it is their daily routine to cope with aspects of life that do not work the way they should. (OK - sorry, I do get carried away a bit from time to time... ) No, honestly, I really don't think they would see the point in expecting a decision about 110% clear-cut cases within a couple of weeks.
Anyway - I wish everybody who's suffering from the Home Office's incompetence and chronic inefficiency strength during their wait!
sebhoff

 

EEA2 Application

Hello,

I am Colombian married to a Spanish citizen, living and working in the UK. We applied in Oct 2008, ie 6 months ago now and obviously they haven't even looked at my application yet, they are telling me that they are only treating right now May 2008 applications, so 11-12 months delay. We have called the HO many many times to chasse my application, but as many of you, nothing is making them treat my application faster.
The problem is that we want/need to go to Venezuela this summer and won't be able to do it without my residence card. We have contacted our local MP, but there is nothing his team can do either. Given all the posts I've read above, what I propose is that we all go to Liverpool and sit down in front of the Home Office with big placards complaining about how inefficient they are and how denigrating this situation is for us. We are planning to call the media so they make publicity out of it and make them look as they deserve, ie very bad. The way we are being treated is a shame and is unacceptable. We are missing the best years of our lives, where we could be able to travel and be free because of these people.
We are planning to do it and go to Liverppool beginning of June (as the latest). Would anyone of you support us?

Maybe this makes them think about how poor the service is in another way.

Please give me feedback about this. Thanks a lot.

 

That’s a good idea; we need to get the press involved however. And if we go it needs to be strength in numbers, 10 people won’t do.
Count us in!

 

Hi all,

I went through the worrying time of waiting for EEA2 visa myself, and reading the related threads on this forum and other similar forums helped me to understand the situation better - so I thought I would share the timeline of my application with you all. I think that was the primary objective of this thread as well.

- Sent out the application in a large box (I included as many supporting documents as possible) on 20th September 08
- UKBA in Liverpool returned most of the supporting documents on 24 September 08
- Received Certificate of Application on 25th September 08
- Heard nothing for 7 months
- Registered a complaint with North West Customer Service Unit on 27th April 09, both via email and post
- Sent an email to the local MP to ask for help on 27th April 09
- Received a letter from UKBA that expressed their apologies for the delay and notified me that my application is allocated to a caseworker with the case ID on 28th April 09
- My local MP sent a letter of enquiry to Liverpool on 7th May 09
- Received my passport with the residence card on 14th May 09 (the cover letter says the decision on my application was made on 30th April 09)

In total it took 7 months and 10 days for my case to be approved. The PA of my local MP said that, when she talked to UKBA in Liverpool, they said the processing time for EEA2 has become 10 to 12 months, because UKBA is strengthening its function of removing foreign national prisoners, which eventually slowed down European casework substantially (this information was also in the letter from UKBA with regard to my complaint). Therefore I was prepared to wait 5 or 6 more months, but then, my passport arrived yesterday with the residence card... I have some friends who made EEA2 applications much earlier than me, and they still haven't heard anything, so I think there were some factors in my application that prompted the process.

1. I cannot really say whether registering a complaint with North West Customer Service Unit has definitely prompted the process of my application or not from my timeline, but from the facts that UKBA sent a letter regarding my complaint on the next day of my complaint, and that the decision was made 2 days later, I would say registering a complaint can help.

2. I tried to make my complaint very polite, but persuasive and diplomatic. I emphasised that it is unfair that our professional and personal lives are constrained by the delay (with clear examples) and we are not given any other option to take than registering a complaint. If any of you want to see the content of my letter, I am very happy to share it with you if you contact me by email.

3. It seems that the decision on my case was already made before my local MP took his action, but it was still great to feel supported by the MP. My local MP was really supportive - his PA even rang my mobile for advice. So I definitely recommend contacting your local MPs.

I hope that my experience can be of help for you. Until yesterday I was feeling lonely and worried and stressed and scared without my passport and not knowing when, and if my visa application will be approved. If I can be of any help, I would be happy to.

Oh, one last thing - I didn't use a solicitor for my application.

kind regards

 

EEA2

Dear all,

Has anyone had prooblems with EEA2 application because he or she overstayed thei visa? My husband overstayed his visa. We have been waiting now for 11 months (applied in June 2008) and never even got a confirmation of the receipt of application. Do you think they would give my husband residence card at all? Any similar experience would be appreciated. Many thanks!!

 

How bad is the immigration

Hi,

we have the same problem with the EEA2. So far it "just" took 5 month. But we need to travel. So my questions:
- does it really not affect the process to get the documentations back
- will they send very thing back, passport, marriage certificate, contracts?
And most important:
- How bad is the immigration when they see that your "family permit" expired? I read that it is ok to enter, but the immigration officer might be rude? Who has experience. Would my wife and me be seperated?

Thanks a lot,
Thomas

 

next steps

Hi,

we just asked for our passports back. They said, they are just processing the May 08 residence card applications... also it will not influence the processing time.

Toward the reentry without a visa, I couldn't find a law that says that without a valid visa, - but with all necessary documents - you can reenter for sure. It depends on the office. The text I read was always, that you need a visa.
If someone can show me otherwise...

So we will need to travel for at least 3 weeks out of UK, to apply for a new "Family Permit", to reenter the country where we are living and paying taxes. In my opinion, this politically wished: Brit jobs for Brits... Long live the EU!

So long,
Thomas

 

EEA2

Hi! My name is Ola,I am waiting 11 month for my EEA2,please can u share with me ur complain letter, my email is olakasatkina@hotmail.co.uk,thank u in advance

 

EEA2 delay

here are my experiences:
I applied for EEA2 in 8th May 2008.
It's now 29th MAY 2009 and still waiting.
We have completed more than 12 Months,
I did complain to many places, but no Results.
Can anybody suggest further step!

 

Congrats lynneg

Im happy for you and hope the waiting games wil soon be over for other people waiting for the good news. In the meantime, can you please advice on the document they asked for.

The contacted us recently and asked for more document and to fill out method of entry questionnaire, which we did, but still waiting to hear from them.

 

passports back

Hi,

we got our passports back. They wrote in the letter that we should apply outside of UK to a Family Permit, - we would get priority in the process. Well, they did not send us the Marriage certificate back, as asked for - so this will be missing in the application.

So we are going to travel back to Brasil, and hope we get the new FP in less than 3 weeks, we are there.

I'll keep you posted.

-- Thomas

 

Have you folks considered a legal action?

From my personal experience, the Administrative Court can help you to issue a mandatory order for the UK Border Agency to immediately process your EEA application. You may also seek damages to be claimed back; however this will require a detailed proof and more evidence. For the mandatory order, you need to apply for a judicial review of your EEA case. The court costs are £50 for application + £180 if the process is approved. If you struggle to fill the judicial review application form, you might need to ask an attorney to do it for you (from my experience costs about £200). I don't advise you to fill the form by yourselves as you need well detailed and structured grounds description.
Advantage of this solution is, that the UK Border Agency which normally doesn't communicate with you, has to respond to the judicial review proposal within 14 days. The following court proceedings can begin in 21 days since lodging the application. If all goes fine, you could have a mandatory order in about 2 months and a residence card in the next 3 weeks.

Take a look at:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... chapter27/

It gives you a good image how the process may work.

 

Still waiting after 13.5 months

We are still waiting for our documents .............

 

We've got a letter asking to send back my wife's passport and my recent wage slips, which means a caseworker is finally assigned. Application submitted on the 20th of August 2008 and complaint sent to North West Customer Service Unit on the 18th of May 2009 after customising us221 complaint letter (see this thread above). Fingers crossed.

 

Hi, I got my passport with eea2 visa, My passport held at Home office 412 DAYS. After long waiting I just followed procedures of us22 of this forum. My MP took my case seriously , this help me to receive my pasport back after 412 DAYs. Thanks for everybody in this forum for good discussuion.