passport impounded

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:00 pm

Hi everybody,
I am an EEA from Greece and recently moved in the UK. My husband remained in Greece and he applied for an EEA family permit at the uk's embassy in Athens in order to come join me.
In support of his application he provided his old(canceled) pasport and his new one. We received a refusal for the EEA family permit. After official checks they received confirmation that the OLD passport was not genuine.. (it was issued, renewed and canceled by official authorities in Nigeria) and had his previous staying permit as a EEA spouse inside -not a word about the new one. Both passports submited in the application were impounded and will be "returned in due time to the relevant authorities" Does anyone knows what that means? How can we get his new pasport? and where from?
After that he can re-apply without being automaticaly refused bec of what happend now? The nigerian embassy refuses to give any written confirmation about the old pasport and he does not have a full right of appeal)
Thanks [/b]

Post by **Jambo** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 8:14 am

He should get the Nigerian consulate in Greece involved. They are in the best position to validate his old passport and to request his current one from the British consulate.

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:11 am

Thank u Jambo, i appreciate.

Post by **vinny** » Mon May 07, 2012 12:31 pm

atike237 wrote:Hello,
I am a EEA national married for 8 years with a nigerian national.
My brother lives and works in the UK for more than 7 years and he is married to a UK national. They are willing to provide us shelter as long as we need it.
We already applied for an EEA FP six months ago and have been refused.

I would like to know wich risks we r facing if we DO NOT apply for EEA FP and we travel together to the UK with our marrige certificate and my husband's Permanent Residence Card and valid passport.

Thank you

pennylessinindia · Post by **pennylessinindia** » Mon May 07, 2012 3:39 pm

vinny wrote:
atike237 wrote:Hello,
I am a EEA national married for 8 years with a nigerian national.
My brother lives and works in the UK for more than 7 years and he is married to a UK national. They are willing to provide us shelter as long as we need it.
We already applied for an EEA FP six months ago and have been refused.

I would like to know wich risks we r facing if we DO NOT apply for EEA FP and we travel together to the UK with our marrige certificate and my husband's Permanent Residence Card and valid passport.

Thank you

How will he have a valid passport if it is being sent to the Nigerian Authorities? I doubt if any airline would allow him to board without a visa.

Post by **ca.funke** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:15 pm

atike237 wrote:...Both passports submited in the application were impounded and will be "returned in due time to the relevant authorities"...

Passports usually remain the property of the issuing country. (I do not know all passports, but never heard of an exception)

As such you have to involve the Nigerian authorities, who can ask the British authorities to return their property to them. If the Nigerian authorities then confirm it´s a "real" passport which should be in your possession, they can physically return it to you.

Ideal and short scenario: Nigerian Embassy Athens talks to the British Embassy in Athens, asking the British to hand the passport to the Nigerian Embassy. If the Nigerian Embassy confirms the authenticity of the document, they can return it to you. All inside Athens.

Whether the Nigerian authorities will do that for you is another question, as you already say:

atike237 wrote:The nigerian embassy refuses to give any written confirmation about the old pasport...

atike237 wrote:...I would like to know wich risks we r facing if we DO NOT apply for EEA FP and we travel together to the UK with our marrige certificate and my husband's Permanent Residence Card and valid passport...

Read >>here<<, scroll down to "EEA family member without Residence Card (Part 2)".

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Tue May 08, 2012 8:20 am

Thank you so much for all the usefull informations and yr reply ca.funke.
For the record:
The passports were finally sent to the nigerian embassy in Athens after 5 months. The old (already canceled by the embassy before 2 years) "not genuine" one, was kept by the embassy. The new e-passport was returned to my husband...
My question is: If we re-apply for an EEA FP they can refuse us bec of this previous passport issue?
If i remember well there is a field in the application wich asks if u have been refused a visa before and if yes, why?
How can i ever explain that the nigerian embassy of greece was issuing not genuine passports that caused so many troubles to many people?

I wish good luck and a great life to everybody!

Post by **ca.funke** » Tue May 08, 2012 8:32 am

atike237 wrote:If i remember well there is a field in the application wich asks if u have been refused a visa before and if yes, why?

You could explain what happened
For an EEA-FP this question is illegal, and you could hence just not answer it
or you could travel without visa, as per my previous post/link

Why did they give out false passports? Was this big, maybe even in the news? In this case you could maybe just add a newspaper-article about this with the EEA-FP application, if you do feel like answering it. What a mess!

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Tue May 08, 2012 9:03 am

Dear ca.funke thank you again!

Inside the passport in the visa page they write by hand: UK VISA APPLIED FOR IN ROME ON XX/XX/11
This is why i think i have to talk about it.

This is something that i found and could explain everything. do u think i can send it with my application?
http://www.emsgr.org/apps/blog/show/184 ... ho-are-we-

Why they issued those passports? Maybe bec they are so corrupted and gready. They used to ask 500 euros for each passport....

Post by **Directive/2004/38/EC** » Wed May 09, 2012 1:52 pm

Do you have the refusal letter from the original application? What exactly does it say on it?

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Wed May 09, 2012 8:49 pm

Hi Directive/2004/38/EC
The refusal letter goes like this:
"in support of yr application you have provided a document wich u claim is yr previus passport. We have carried out officials checks and have received confirmation that this doc is not a genuine passport. A non genuine doc does not satisfactorily establish yr identity and nationality. I am not satisfied as to yr true identity. I am therefore not satisfied that u r related as claimed to the EEA principal. I therefore refuse yor EEA permit....."
In my opinion the previous (canceled by the embassy) passport was NOT a supporting document!
They didnt say anything about the new valid e-passport and impounded both...!! The nigerian embassy refused to get involved!! They sent the passports to the nigerian embassy in athens 4 months later, after we wrote a loong complaints letter about the way they handeled our application and impounded the passports.
Do u think we can risk it and travel without FP after all this mess?
Thank you

Post by **EUsmileWEallsmile** » Wed May 09, 2012 8:52 pm

atike237 wrote: Do u think we can risk it and travel without FP after all this mess?

I would say you would most likely be denied boarding.

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Wed May 09, 2012 9:18 pm

we will be denied boarding with my husbands passport, a permanent staying permit as EEA spouse and a mariage cerificate?
But Directive 2004/38/EC, Articles 5 and 10 is clear about it...

Post by **EUsmileWEallsmile** » Wed May 09, 2012 10:12 pm

atike237 wrote:we will be denied boarding with my husbands passport, a permanent staying permit as EEA spouse and a mariage cerificate?
But Directive 2004/38/EC, Articles 5 and 10 is clear about it... :?

The UK's position is that a visa national needs a visa (or residence card) to enter the UK. If a person got to a border they could argue their case, but the problem will be getting to a border (from Greece).

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Wed May 09, 2012 10:33 pm

thank you.

Post by **Jambo** » Wed May 09, 2012 10:33 pm

You can fly to Paris/Brussels and take a Eurostar from there. UKBA staff are based on the continent side so you are argue your case before boarding the train.

Post by **Directive/2004/38/EC** » Wed May 09, 2012 11:41 pm

So at this point your husband has his new passport. Why not apply today for a new EEA Family Permit?

I would mentioned on the application form the previous refusal. I would just type in the number which on the refusal document.

I would also recommend that you include a strongly worded cover letter

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Thu May 10, 2012 8:25 am

I would like to thank all of you for yr support and advice.
It means a lot

Post by **Directive/2004/38/EC** » Thu May 10, 2012 9:09 am

It is too late to apply for Judicial Review in the previous refusal, but http://www.freemovement.org.uk/2010/09/ ... -refusals/ is interesting.

I would ask the embassy for the the Document Verification Report (DVR).

Would you like help with your cover letter? I am not a professional in any way, but happy to try to contribute what I can.

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Thu May 10, 2012 9:30 am

YES YES YES

any kind of help is welcomed. Would you like to see the letter i wrote in order to find out what they did with the passports for about 4 months? 1 week after they get my letter they sent them back in athens! can i send it in pm?

Post by **Directive/2004/38/EC** » Thu May 17, 2012 6:13 am

atike237 wrote:Inside the passport in the visa page they write by hand: UK VISA APPLIED FOR IN ROME ON XX/XX/11

You were living in Greece but both applied for the visa in Rome?

Post by **Greenie** » Thu May 17, 2012 7:27 am

The application would've been sent to Rome to be considered as this is the processing hub for the region.

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Thu May 17, 2012 9:40 am

Exactly! We applied in Athens Greece but the application was sent in Rome Italy.

atike237 · Post by **atike237** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 11:37 am

Hello,
I am planing to submit a new application for the EEA FP.
Directive/2004/38/EC could you help me with the cover letter?
Thanks

presido007 · Post by **presido007** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 11:05 pm

atike237 wrote:Hi everybody,
I am an EEA from Greece and recently moved in the UK. My husband remained in Greece and he applied for an EEA family permit at the uk's embassy in Athens in order to come join me.
In support of his application he provided his old(canceled) pasport and his new one. We received a refusal for the EEA family permit. After official checks they received confirmation that the OLD passport was not genuine.. (it was issued, renewed and canceled by official authorities in Nigeria) and had his previous staying permit as a EEA spouse inside -not a word about the new one. Both passports submited in the application were impounded and will be "returned in due time to the relevant authorities" Does anyone knows what that means? How can we get his new pasport? and where from?
After that he can re-apply without being automaticaly refused bec of what happend now? The nigerian embassy refuses to give any written confirmation about the old pasport and he does not have a full right of appeal)
Thanks [/b]

I am from Nigeria and my old passport expired, then I renewed it, a year later I applied for the e-passport at the Nigerian Embassy in London and my old passport was stamped "cancelled without prejudice" on all the empty pages on my old passport. Every country have there different ways of invalidating an old passport when a new passport is issued. my wife had her old passport cut off slightly on the data information page of her passport by the romanian embassy in London. I have travelled so many times with my old passport because I still have my RC in it and I didn't have any problem at the immigration entry point both in eu countries and the uk. I have submitted both my old passport to apply for scheggen visa when I am going for a business trip and there has never been any problem. So, your spouse passport is not fake, you need to let the uk embassy in Greece know that.
Some of this case workers just need training. it is now a matter of chance or luck on which case worker is handling your application now because they are not consistent in there decisions. so for the records, all Nigeria old passport are stamped CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE, and that doesn't make it FAKE. if it was fake, am sure the new passport wouldn't have been returned to your spouse by the Nigerian Embassy.

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