Please help - EEA FP Refused - Proving intent to travel...

[pilar]

My wife and her children have received refusal for EEA Family Permit

The reason is that it is not deemed proven that I will travel with them as well as it is not proven that I hold the working position in Philippines that I claim.

The same was the issue once before, since we had not included a proper letter from me stating our intent. Instead of appealing, we decided to re-apply, this time with a notarized letter from me stating our intent to settle in UK as a family once the permit was granted.

The current refusal goes like this:
“You have applied to settle in UK with your sponsor, XXXXX, a Danish national. You have previously been refused entry clearance to the UK due to the Entry Clearance Officer not being satisfied with the evidence provided that your sponsor is intending to travel to the UK with you.
You have provided a photocopy of you sponsor’s Danish passport and I note evidence of lengthy visits in the Philippines as well as a marriage certificate. I note in your application form you state that you live with your sponsor and that he is employed as an operations manager in the Philippines. I note no evidence of your sponsor’s employment as claimed.
You have provided a one page notarised letter dated 20/03/2015 from your sponsor, but I note no other evidence as stated in your previous refusal to satisfy me that your sponsor is intending to travel to the UK.
Given the above, I am not satisfied that your EEA family member is residing in the UK, or will be accompanying you to the UK within 6 months of the date of the application, in accordance with Regulation 12(a) of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006.”


My wife and her children are Filipino citizens and I am Danish. We have been living together here in Philippines since Jan. 2012 and married since Nov. 2012.

Our intention is that as soon as we have the permit I will quit my job here and we will move to UK together to settle as the family we are. I will find work asap while we process the family’s residence papers.

So the question is:
1- How do I prove that I intend to travel with my family?
I can’t book flights since I don’t know the outcome and timing of the application yet.
I don’t have a job in UK yet (partially because I can’t commit to a date because of the application.
I can’t show accommodation there since this can’t be arranged until after the permit has been granted.
I have already submitted a notarized letter stating my intent to travel with my family.
2- Is it really required for me to prove my current working status?
I have not informed my employer yet, so I would rather not implicate them in case they are called upon for confirmation (that would be awkward when I haven’t told them yet…)
How can I prove this while guaranteeing that the Entry Clearance Office doesn’t contact my employer?

Please help. I am completely lost.

Our lives are on hold awaiting this permit

I have so far stayed away from any agencies, but I am lost now….. Are there any decent agencies that can be hired to sort this out?
I would rather not that route, but I need to get this through asap.....

[vinny]

They are being unreasonable.

Declarations of travel should have been sufficient. Why would the UKVI think that your dependants wanted to travel without you?

[pilar]

Thanks Vinny

I am going to write to them now to get some clarification.
Hopefully they can provide some.....

Do you know why they would ask for proof of my current job?
First of all I can't see that it fits with the requirements what I am doing now in Philippines.
And secondly I can't see how I can prove my employment without involving my employer or at least risk that they are contacted for confirmation. And that would be problematic since I have not quit yet.....

[cafeconleche]

You can also contact SOLVIT directly instead of trying to reason with these dimwits.

[rosebead]

Good advice from Vinny. All that should be required for the application in your situation is passports, marriage certificate and a declaration of travel. Anything else is excessive.

[Obie]

That is outrageous.

Your wife will not not be admitted to the UK without you . So why refusing her because there is no proof she is accompanying you, when it is clear that even with the EEA family permit, she will not be admitted without you.

The declaration is sufficient.

You should consider appealing the decision.

Utterly senseless.

[pilar]

Thank you all.

At least it seems I'm not the only one who's baffled at their refusal.

I have now written to the embassy who have "forwarded it to the visa section".
So hopefully they will reconsider.

Also wrote to SOLVIT.

While giving them a little time to answer, we are considering our options.

1- Re-apply with even stronger cover letter, where I specifically address the issue that I should not need to prove my travel intent beyond the declaration in my letter. Possibly involve a lawyer in the processing, though I am not sure how competent the local lawyers are in this matter.
2- Travel to another EU country and apply from there (Sweden is the option we are thinking of at the moment). Does anyone have any experience with this model?
3- Appeal their decision, but as far as I can see the appeal takes a looong time and doesn't provide better chances that re-applying. Also it is processed directly in UK which makes it a little awkward.

Any good advise in case they refuse to reconsider their decision?

[SondraF]

Im wondering if the real underlying reason is they are suspecting a sham marriage? What about if the applicant includes some photos of the with the family (there and potentially if any visits to DK), some payslips showing wage and name of the employer from various times, and some print outs of potential flights they would take? Yeah, this is all above and beyond what is required given they are married, but these are bizarre times.

I've applied from within the US and also from within a third country (Sweden) and the only difference was in Sweden I had to physically go to an office for fingerprinting/photographs, pay a small fee, and hand them my paperwork. It was a little bit slower, but the application still went to the UK. The guys at the office are not allowed to take on more information or make a judgement in your case. The only benefit, possibly, for you would be speed of processing, if it takes a while for processing and travel from the philippines. From Sweden last summer it took about 2 weeks.

[liane25]

Did you provide bank statements? This is to show that you have sufficient funds to support your wife and her children in UK. And it would also be less problem if you have some possible accommodation once you are in UK.
In my opinion, you should travel to UK, find some job and prepare everything for them and when you are settled they can apply for family permit. My husband did that when I moved here in UK.

[pilar]

Thanks again for the replies.

We have now received answer from SOLVIT.

They advise that:
1-Provide proof of my current employment via letter from employer or contract.
2-Reserve a flight ticket or purchase a flight ticket with flexible dates and/or refund options.

Not what I had hoped, but unless the embassy answer back with different advise, I suppose we will do that.
Time is not on our side, so I guess we'll have to go all in on this re-application....

I just worry that the flight tickets could cost us even if we do not purchase fully. And I will probably need to resign when re-applying so I can ensure that I leave properly and don't get sacked when they contact my employer.....
Apparently it's the gamble we gotta take.

Regarding the latest replies from SondraF and liane25, I am considering adding pictures of the family together from the last few years as well as bank statements.

Should there be any issues in providing these?

[rosebead]

SOLVIT are not legal experts, they are just mediators. You're best contacting Your Europe Advice for legal advice. I'm afraid it's often the case you get a lot of badly trained Entry Clearance Officers that ask for things that applicants are not legally required to provide. Some applicants comply to avoid delay and others appeal which takes ages. You could try writing to Your Europe Advice and including their reply in your correspondence with the embassy. Unfortunately there appears to be no Home Office guidance that you could print out which clearly lists the supporting documents that you need to produce in your situation, which is probably deliberate to make things hard for applicants. Some EU countries are more helpful in that respect.

[pilar]

Thanks rosebead

I used the contact form on SOLVIT's website but apparently they re-direct those inquiries to "Your Europe Advise" because they we actually the ones that sent me the advice I posted earlier.

Since I have just received options on the job front locally in case the permit is delayed, I can now safely resign and attach contracts etc. without worrying about the consequences on that front.

We'll sort something out with flight tickets, add family pictures, add bank statements, prepare a new letter from both me and my wife, and then re-apply.

All this should not be necessary, but they've got the long end of the stick so I'll just comply to anything a this point.

Thanks all for the advice.

I'll let you know how it goes, and I might be back with some questions when we apply for residence cards

[pilar]

Then the response from the embassy came......

Dear Ms XXXXXXXXXXX

Manila Ref: XXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX
We are writing in response to the email we received from Mr XXXXXXXXXXX concerning your refusals.
Your previous applications were refused because your sponsor provided no evidence of travel to the UK with his 4 dependents. Again, limited evidence of travel was provided in your most current applications with the exception of a 1 paged notarised letter. It is noted that your sponsor does not require to demonstrate evidence of funds and employment for the first 3 months but the Entry Clearance Officer was not satisfied that you are travelling to the UK together.
An Entry Clearance Manager has reviewed the decisions to refuse your applications and confirms that the decision is correct.

You may re-apply anytime in the future ensuring that you have fully addressed all the reasons set out in the refusal notice. Whilst we cannot guarantee that any application would be successful, we can confirm that it would be treated on its individual merits. We are unable to give you specific advice as to what document you will need to provide to satisfy the Entry Clearance Officer if you plan to make new applications as applicants should refer to our website to ensure that their applications are supported by the required documentary evidence, prior to submitting an application.

Yours sincerely

The Correspondence Team
UK Visas and Immigration

Home Office
British Embassy Manila


So they are unable to tell us what they consider proof of travel, but merely refer to the website that does not specify this either.....

Doesn't change our plan to re-apply with ticket reservations and all.

Just show how rigid they are in their processing.
At the moment, not terribly impressed with them.....

[pilar]

Sorry for the late update, but application was a success
3rd time lucky, I guess

We sent everything we had. Pictures, work contracts, resignation letter, letters from my wife and me.....

Going to UK next week

Thanks a lot for your help. Invaluable.