EEA2 EXPIRED WHILE ABROAD.HOW TO RETURN TO UK

[malanjinho]

Hello everyone.
I am a spouse of an EEA member and currently hold an EEA2 residence card which is expiring in March 2019. I am a seaman and work on fixed rotation of 4 months at sea and 4 months vacation. I am due to embark a ship next month, December, and by the time I finish my rotation my residence card will be expired, so I am concerned of how I can be allowed back into the UK without affecting my permanent residence.

Can anybody please give me a heads up on how to enter the UK? I don't know where I will be flying from at the time of my return, it will depend on where the ship is at the time of my signing off. So I am afraid I might get stuck at the airport, especially if it is not a European country. I must add that I am not from a visa free country.

Any advice please?

[secret.simon]

Apply for a new Residence Card before you leave. There are no timelimits or restrictions on how often you can apply for a Residence Card.

[vinny]

I am due to embark a ship next month, December,

Is there sufficient time to apply?

(3) On receipt of an application under paragraph (1) or (2) and the documents that are required to accompany the application the Secretary of State must immediately issue the applicant with a certificate of application for the residence card and the residence card must be issued no later than six months after the date on which the application and documents are received.

[malanjinho]

That's correct Vinny. There's not enough time to apply. Thence my concern. I know somebody may wonder why I did not sort it out before going to sea. The reason is I have been waiting for a ship assignment for 2 months. I did not expect still to be home at this time. There was a problem with my rotation and my employer only managed to get me a ship assignment now for December. Had everything gone as normal, I would be returning to the UK in January with sufficient time to apply for my PR.

Having read many threads, I can only see two options. One is to fly to my home country and get an EEA family permit to reenter the UK.
The second option is also to fly to my home country and apply for a schengen visa, and enter the UK via EUROSTAR, with the expired residence card. Maybe even have my wife meet me in France so we can return together. I just don't know how this will go. Does anybody have any other suggestions please?

My other concern is, if I do go to my home country and return to the UK with an EEA family permit, will I be able to apply for permanent residence with the EEA family permit?

[obormot]

1. Eurostar is NOT easier to use then air travel, if you have a shaky visa situation. In fact, they give you more problems if you use Eurostar.

2. If you apply for Residence Card now and get your passport back and your biometrics done before leaving the country, then you should be OK. It seems biometrics letter comes within couple of weeks after application.

If you are lucky (should be given current timeline) your Residence card while you are away (and then your family members just ship it to you and you use it to enter UK).
If it does not arrive, then at least you get Certificate of Application. With that you can enter UK (especially if you also carry marriage certificate and proof that your wife exercises treaty rights), though it might be difficult to make airline to agree to it. Low cost ones would not do it, or example.

3. There is no provision in guidelines that applying for and using EEA family permit stops the clock for PR.
In fact, I think this is what they expect you to do if you, say, loose your EEA2 while traveling abroad.

4. If you do not get EA FP and did not apply for Residence (so no COA either) you still can try to enter holding all documents about your wife (and better wife herself too).
You have high chances to succeed once you se immigration board officers.
But, in my opinion, you have low chances to be allowed on ay vessel traveling to UK, be it plane, train, or boat.

[malanjinho]

Thank you for your explanation Obormot.

So in this case if the FP will not reset the clock or affect my PR in any way then I believe this is my best option. My wife already has the PR card, so I think that proving her treaty rights from abroad should not be a problem if I take her PR card, our marriage certificate,along with some utitlity bills in both our names.Plus my own expired RC should add to the evidence that I live here and that in fact I have already acquired PR status.

Regarding applying to renew my RC now,although this would be the ideal scenario I am not sure time will permit. Even if I get the biometrics letter in two weeks, I understand from the posts here that only after receiving the COA and sending the biometrics I can request the passport back, which at best can take a further 10 days to receive. That would be very tight as I have to fly out of the country to join a ship in exactly 26 days.

Thanks once again for your response. God bless you.

[malanjinho]

Hey guys,

Please help!
After posting my EEA2 application I realised that I sent my wife's driving licence by mistake, thinking that it was her national ID card.
Will my application be automatically rejected? or
Will they at least contact me to send the appropriate ID document?
Shall I just withdraw the application and resubmit it to save the time of waiting for months and then be rejected in the end because of this issue?
I don't know if this will help, but I currently hold a valid EEA2 resident card that will expire in a few months so I decided to renew it in advance for travelling reasons. Since they already checked my wife's details in my first application, and furthermore I have enclosed her permanent resident card and our marriage certificate,will this be enough for them to ignore my mistake?

Please share any advice or experiences!

[vinny]

Posts merged.

[vinny]

A driving license probably won’t work under 21(5).

[malanjinho]

A driving license probably won’t work under 21(5).

Thanks Vinny. Do you know of any options available to send additional supporting documents??

[malanjinho]

Hi guys,

I have just received a letter from the Home Office stating the following:

"Thank you for the above application. From the information provided it appears that a refund is appropriate. I enclose a cheque of 40 pounds to reimburse the fee you have paid."
Then there is a cheque of 40£.
I have been desperately expecting the biometrics letter which is overdue considering the current timelines for eea2 applications, but instead I receive a refund of the application fee!!!and without any explanation of the reason for the refund!

Can somebody please help decipher this?

[malanjinho]

For reference to somebody who might look for a similar answer to my previous post.

I just got a rejection letter together with my documents back today. Since it was not a refusal, they refund 40£ (25£ goes to administration fees).
The rejection was due to me providing a driving licence instead of an ID. I did call the customer service before who instructed me to write a letter explaining my mistake and to mention that I do have the ID card or passport in case they want me to send it. They told me not to send the ID unless I receive a reply requesting me to do so. I did as they advised, because I was afraid of sending a lose document and getting it lost. But this letter clearly was to no avail. They simply don't bother to ask you for an additional document, you either send everything right first time or you get your application rejected.