EEA Extended Family Member Right to Work

[filit]

I've taken a lot of advice from this immigration board so I thought I'd offer some in case anyone finds themselves in the same position as my partner and I did.

On 28 June 2019 my partner (South African) applied for a EEA EFM visa on the basis of her relationship with me (Italian). We didn't use immigration lawyers as we thought it was an huge amount of money to pay for something we should be able to do ourselves. Consequently we did make some mistakes and were caught unawares by my partner's certificate of application stating that she did not have the right to work while her application was being considered (because we are unmarried).

She was due to start a new job the week after we applied but the original EEA Family Permit in her passport had expired and the CoA stated she didn't have the right to work. So she had no way of proving her right to work to her new employers.

On the (free) recommendation of some imigration lawyers I called, we wrote a letter to our case officer asking him to reconsider granting her interim right to work so she wouldn't lose her job (and because living off of one income would put us under undue financial stress). On 25 July 2019 we received a new certificate of application stating that she had been granted the right to work until her applicaton has been decided.

This might be common knowledge but we were really surprised at their willingness to reconsider.

Hopefully this story can help someone who finds themselves in the same situation as we did!

Good luck.

[Zerubbabel]

Thank you for sharing this.

But she should'v applied as partner not as extended family member.

[CR001]

Thank you for sharing this.

But she should'v applied as partner not as extended family member.

If they are unmarried, then it is extended family member.