I wrote nearly a whole update a little earlier today and then hit the wrong key and lost the lot! Grrr....
Anyway, I will start again. A lot has happened so I will try to summarize to keep it brief. Unfortunately, nothing really good to report yet, but we are still fighting....
Rachid returned to the Embassy in Rabat a week after we put in his application for an EEA FP as he was told. After getting an overnight bus, he got a phone call just before he arrived at the Embassy to tell him that they had not completed processing his application as yet and that they would call him when they had.
The job that I was to start in the UK dictated that I go right away and so rather reluctantly, my son and I left for the UK on February 13th, without Rachid.
While in the UK, I heard back from the EU Commission regarding my complaint about Spain and Gibraltar. While not the best outcome, it was very well written and I understood everything that they stated. In regards to Gibraltar, they dismissed it as I am a UK Citizen and although I have pointed out that I was resident in Spain, I also stated that it is not that important to me at this time. In regards to Spain, what they essentially said, I believe, is that had we been married and Rachid therfore had automatic rights, Spain would have been in the wrong in the way they have acted. As unmarried partners however, they have had more liberty to interpret the law and therefore, it is not quite so clear and they have not found them to have been outside of it. They did say that we have the right to ask for the Expulsion Order to be revoked and indicated that this should be granted due to Rachid's relationship to me. They asked me to keep them posted if we decided to request that the Expulsion Order is revoked. I replied to them with an update on what we were doing and pointed out that although I understood what they were saying, I felt that Spain could have been a little more helpful. Not once has anything been issued to us in writing and we have been given no help at all when asking how or where we might revoke the Expulsion Order.
After phoning the Rabat Embassy from the UK a couple of times and having an in-depth conversation with the ECO handling Rachid's EEA FP application, he was finally told to go to the Embassy to collect 'the decision' on Monday March 8th, 5 weeks after the application was submitted. The decision was a refusal, and was written in English with nobody explaining to Rachid the reasons why. I had to wait another full day before Rachid could get back home and have it scanned and sent to me to read through. In addition, none of the original documentation that we had given them was returned to us so it was not a good trip all in all.
Here is the decision from the ECO:
I have refused you EEA FP application on this occasion because I am not satisfied that you meet all of the requirements of Regulation 12 of the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006. This decision will not prejudice any future UK visa or EEA FP application that you make.
The Entry Clearance Officer's reasons and supporting evidence
You have applied for an EEA FP of a UK national. This relates to section 9 of the Immigration (EEA) Regualtions 2006. I have looked carefully at the regulations and guidelines and I am satisfied that you do not meet the requirements for this for the following reasons. The rules under part 9 state that:
- 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 or they entered into the marriage or civil partnership and were living together in that EEA country before returning to the UK.
The letter submitted by your sponsor clearly states "From January 2009, my partner and I lived in Morocco..." She then goes on to write "In September 2009, I wanted to leave Morocco and put my 5 year old son into a European school.... I was told that my partner would not be able to enter Spain until after the Expulsion order expired.... Based on this information my partner and I decided that perhaps we would look to moving to the UK..... In September 2009, my son and I returned to the UK"
I am satisfied that before your sponsor returned to the UK she was not residing in an EEA Member state and also that you and the sponsor were not living together in an EEA country before your sponsor returned to the UK.
I therefore refuse your application
END
The statement that the ECO refers to was not the statement that I submitted to them with the application, but actually the complaint to the EU Commission that I had included as history of our movements, but further below is the Appeal that we will submit, in person to them tomorrow in Rabat.
The day after, the 9th, I received notice that my father had fallen critically ill and was in the hospital in Malaga but heavily sedated. The following day we were told to come as they didn't think he would make it. One crisis took over from another and I travelled back to Malaga with my son very early on Thursday morning. My brother also flew in from the Emirates where he lives but my father passed away very early on the Thursday morning, before we were able to get there to see him. I was devastated that Rachid was not able to be with me at that time, nor able to come to say goodbye to my father whom he had formed a bond with himself.
On this past Tuesday, I travelled once again to Morocco along with 300 euros from my brother for Rachid and I to marry. We have spent the past few days getting documents together and have most of mine with a translator. This night, we will get another overnight bus to Rabat and visit the UK Embassy to collect my original documents that they did not return, to get the documents from them that I need to marry in Morocco and also to hand deliver the Appeal for the EEA FP refusal for Rachid. Thre are a couple of other places we must then get papers from and then we will hopefully get back to Tetouan to leave the last document to be translated with the translator. At 3pm on Tuesday, we will be able to collect the translated documents and assuming all goes well tomorrow (I assume nothing these days mind...), we will be able to go directly to the family court and sign a marriage contract there.
Once married, We will test out what we have been told by Spain and we will go first to the Spanish Consulate in Tetouan on Wednesday morning to apply for entry for Rachid into Spain, and failing that, will go straight to the Frontera of Ceuta and see what happens.
I have things to sort out for my father in Malaga, and I desperately need to get back to my job in the UK, and my son back to school, although the Easter holidays are coming. None of this do I want to do without my partner however, so I am now just taking things one step at a time.
In the next post is our Appeal for the EEA FP refusal which, incidentally, I forwarded to the EU Commission last week when I responded to them with an update on our situation. I will keep you posted on what happens next.
) Keep ya chin up and be happy ... if you stay positive , positive things will happen !! .
, there are only 2 issues at hand here. The first is do my partner and I have a durable ralationship, and the second is am I to be treated as an EU/EEA Citizen.
)