Hi there,

I am French living and working in England for 3 and half years, my husband is Turkish living in Turkey, we are planning to apply for the EEA Family Permit as soon as possible so he can join me to live here.

I red many things about the EEA Family Permit but still have a few questions:

I went on holiday to Turkey from March 23rd to March 30th this year, I met my husband on March 28th, I then came back to see him in Turkey from May 3rd to May 10th, from June 29th to July 7th and from September 8th to September 21st, we got married on September 14th .

I am worried the UKBA would think this is a marriage of convenience as it says on their website:

"When a marriage / civil partnership of convenience is suspected, the burden of proof is high and rests with the ECO. However, in these cases the ECO is entitled to interview the applicant. Factors to consider include:
an adverse immigration history;
doubts about the validity of documentation;
application follows soon after the marriage / civil partnership;
no previous evidence of the relationship."
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/policyandlaw/guidance/ecg/eun/eun2/#header10

What do they mean by “application follows soon after the marriage”?
Is there a minimum or recommended delay after the wedding to apply for this permit?

Also my husband was refused a working visa to Germany 1 or 2 years ago, do you think they could refuse the EEA FP for those 2 reasons?

As I want to prove this is a genuine wedding this are the documents I am thinking to provide:

* Copy of my passport with the stamps from my visits in Turkey

* Pictures

*Telephone bills, but the thing is that I almost never called him directly, I used a prepaid card and also a special code from my mobile phone so his phone number does not appears on the bill, I also send him text messages from time to time but not that many as it’s quite expensive. Do you think this could be a problem?

*MSN messenger history: As we meet everyday on MSN I taught it could be a good support, but I am wondering if I have to print all the pages of conversations as there are so many and also there are private things I would not like to share... What is your advice?

*I think I have seen somewhere that we could provide text messages, but how? Are there any ways to print texts from a mobile phone?

*As we got married in Turkey, we will provide our Turkish wedding certificate, but I was thinking to add our French wedding certificate with the English translation:
Because I wanted our wedding to be recognised in France we had go different times to the French consulate in Ankara. The first time was to apply for a “certificat de capacité à marriage” this is a document that says we are able to get married. We had an interview there as the Lady was saying that we met just 3 months ago and it was too soon to get married, she suspected my husband wanted to marry me just for a visa... after almost 2 hours of trying to convince her, she finally approved.
So I wanted to add a letter explaining all of that along with the French wedding certificate to prove that authorities in France already approved our wedding as genuine.
Do you think it could help?
Also, does the Turkish wedding certificate has to be translated too?

Do you think there are any other documents I can provide to prove this is not a marriage of convenience? We don’t have any emails or letter as we speak every evening on MSN.

Thank you so much in advance for reading all that and for your responses.

Gaelle.

 

My husband had his appointment yesterday at Worldbridge, but when he gave them the Lady told him that we put the wrong date on the application form, instead of writing 9 November 2012, he wrote 9 September 2012, but she still took it and now the status is: On way to WorldBridge HUB.

Do you think they can refuse the permit for that? Or maybe they would just call my husband for an explanation?

I am really stressed now, as if they refuse for that we would have to do it all over again and it would take much time to gather all the documents again, as far as I know, when they refuse they don't give back the documents, am I wrong?

 

Thanks for your response

The officer did not correct the date, she just said it was wrong...

 

Today my husband received a phone call from the consulate asking him to provide our family register. He will go Friday to Istanbul to give them, this is not an interview as they said he could send it.

I aim to think this is a good new as they would not ask for a document if they wanted to refuse the permit, am I wrong?

But I am surprised about this request as we provided both Turkish and French wedding certificates translated in English and they do not mention it in the supporting document guidance...

Does people generally provide it with the supporting documents?

Any idea about why they want it?

 

That's the thing, they never gave a list of document to provide, there is only the supporting document guidance on the UKBA website, but they do not mention anywhere the "livret de famille international"...

 

Ok, I see what you mean, but I thought the most relevant document in this case was the wedding certificate, specially that they don't have such "wedding book" in the UK, am I wrong?

Does the "livret de famille international" have more value than the wedding certificate?

 

I hope, finger crossed

Thanks for your help, I'll update as soon as we have a response.

 

EEA family permit approved

Thanks Cyrilexpat for your precious help!

 

Hi Wish,

First thing, I really do not recommend you to write those letters as they have to be all different with different writing style so the Home Office can't say that 1 person wrote everyone's letters. If the English is poor that is not a problem as long as they can understand, for them that will be a proof that your family and friends really wrote they letters themself. They should just say how they know you and your spouse, how, when and where they saw you together, how you love eachother etc... They can get help from people to write in English and explain it in the letter as well as saying that if the Home Office needs to contact them they should do so in their language.

I'll put below as example the letter one friend of my husband wrote for him (I've replaced the confidential informations by .....):

Hello,

I am a friend of ....., we know each other like two year. ..... is good friend of me, we worked together and we have fun, we had very good day together.
..... introduced me to his wife Gaelle in May and he said he get engaged with her and I was very happy because my good friend get engaged with the woman he love so much.
Later, I see them together when Gaelle come again in July, they look so happy together.
Before getting married ..... and Gaelle came to make reservation in my uncle restaurant and then my friend ..... get married in September. It was very good beautiful wedding, we was dancing together it was very good. ..... and Gaelle they looking into other eyes, really they love each other so much.
I wish they will be happy forever.
You can telephone me on ............. or email to ................. when you want I can tell you more, but because my English not so good, I like more if you speak Turkish to me (I ask a friend to help me with the letter).


12 November 2012
Antalya