Surinder Singh Case

[SuzMcFluz]

Hi All

I am a British Citizen and my husband is Albanian and we recently applied for a UK settlement visa via the British Embassy in Tirana. Our application was refused on the grounds that they don't believe we are in a "genuine and subsisting relationship". Our relationship is very new, we met in June 2007 and got married in December 2007, we have been living together in Greece/Albania since September 2007. My husband did enter the UK illegally in 2003, was picked up straight away and spent a month in custody before being sent back to Albania, this was taken into account as part of their reason for refusal, along with the fact that his English is only very basic. We are appealing this decision and are awaiting the date of our hearing.

My husband and I are now living in Kefalonia, Greece, my husband has been here for 6 years and lives and works here legally. Since our previous visa application I have read about claiming my EU Treaty Rights and applying for a Family Permit for my husband. I am working in Greece, have got a 5 year residence permit, a tax number and have IKA (local insurance). We came back to Kefalonia perminantly in March 2008 and I have been working since May 2008 (the work is seasonal here, so my job will finish at the end of September) I am planning to submit our application at the end of July as we would like to go to the UK in October 2008.

Have I missed anything?

Will our previous visa refusal be taken into consideration?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

[JAJ]

If they don't believe it's a genuine relationship they can also refuse under the EEA rules.

[Wanderer]

Worth noting....

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... 727#175727

[SuzMcFluz]

Thanks for the replys. I guess we'll just need to keep our fingures crossed. We have now been together a year and and by the time we apply we will have been married and living together for 8 months.

Wanderer, I checked out the highlighted quote from your link, not sure where you took that from but as far as I can make out it doesn't matter if the only reason a British Citizen goes to an EU Country is to exercise a Treaty Right. The following is from the UK Border Agency website - Entry Clearance Guidence - General Instructions - Chapter 21 - The European dimension [Update 4 June 2008], I've highlighted the sentence I'm refering to:

21.4.8 - Non-EEA Family Members of British Nationals (Surinder Singh cases)
A British national and his/her non-EEA family members can only benefit from free movement rights if they meet the criteria established in the ECJ case of Surinder Singh. The case stated that nationals of a Member State who are exercising an economic Treaty right (i.e as a worker or self-employed person) in another Member State will, on return to their home state, be entitled to bring their non-EEA family members to join them under EC law.

Example: A British national is exercising an economic Treaty right in Germany and living with his non-EEA spouse and children. On the British national's return to the UK, his non-EEA family members can apply for an EEA family permit to join him under EC law.

The Surinder Singh judgement is incorporated into the EEA Regulations in Regulation 9. Family members of British nationals who meet the requirements of Regulation 9 are treated as family members of EEA nationals for the purposes of the EEA Regulations.

Applications for EEA family permits must meet the following criteria:

The British citizen is residing in an EEA Member State as a worker or self-employed person or was doing so before returning to the UK.
If the family member of the British citizen is their spouse or civil partner, they are living together in the EEA country or they entered into the marriage or civil partnership and were living together in that EEA country before returning to the UK.
The family member is lawfully resident in the EEA country where the British citizen is working. If the family member is not lawfully resident, they will need to satisfy the requirements of the Immigration Rules for leave to enter the UK as the family member of the British national.
Because EEA nationals have an initial three month right of residence in the UK, there is no requirement for the British national to be a qualified person on arrival. Therefore, an EEA family permit can be issued to the family member of a British national even if they are only visiting the UK with the British national before returning to the Member State where they are resident.

It does not matter if the only reason the British national went to another Member State to exercise an economic Treaty right was so that he/she could come back to the UK with his/her family members under EC law.

You should seek advice from ECO Support where you are unsure about the decision to be taken in applying the Surinder Singh judgement.

Appologies if I'm wrong.

[Richard66]

In theory, according to EU Directive 2004/38, you don't need anything do go to the UK, not even the so-called EEA Family permit. As you are working in Greece and can prove it you are covered by EU and not UK law. You can go to the UK even on a visit. I know all this because I am a UK citizen married to a Russian living in Italy. The UK did their best to impede us to to there for a holiday. They are now facing the consequences for this at the ECJ.

[SuzMcFluz]

Thanks Richard66. I came accross your posts this morning and read with interest. This whole process is so stressful, my husband and I actually want to settle in the UK so things are a little different for us.

With regards to the paperwork needed, I have simillar issues. We were not married in the UK or Greece (we were married in Albania) so the British Embassy in Athens requires further suplimentry evidence. "Please contact us for information". This is absolutly impossible, there is an hour time slot when the visa section takes call, I have tried from Greece and mum has tried from the UK numerous amount of times. I also followed through the links and got to the World Bridge website where you can either call (at a cost) or email your question. I sent an email, initially I was quite impressed, I got an email back within a couple of days telling me that my question needed further research and I would be contacted soon, I had to chase their response and have now sent my question 5 times, each time the answers I received did not answer the question I was asking, I finally sent my question via the complaint option. I got a response within about a week saying that someone in Athens would get back to me as a matter of urgency. They actually did email me back the next day and told me that we need our marriage certificate endorsed by the British Embassy in Tirana, which I know they don't do, and then have it officially translated! When we applied for my husbands visa in Albanian we had to have our marriage certificate legalised by the Foreign Ministery in Albania and offically translated which we have had done. I now have an email address for the Embassy in Athens so I have replied asking if they can clarify that what we have got it sufficent, it has been over a week and I am still waiting for a reply. I have been trying to find this answer out for at least 2 months now, arrrraaaaahhhhh!

Once we have completed our application on-line we'll have to go to Athens with our paperwork, I just want to make sure we have everything we need!

Sorry for the rant, just wanted to get a bit of my frustration out.