Post
by Erik84 » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:16 am
I would like to share my story which might be of interest to some ppl out there.
I am a Swedish citizen living in Ireland (since March 2006) and my wife is from an African country. She applied for a D-visa to join me in Ireland in May 2006. At this time we had already been married for two years and she had visited me in Sweden on C-visas several times.
Her D-visa was granted in October and she came to Ireland a few days ago. Like many others she was told at the airport to register with the Gardai at Burgh Quay in Dublin. Border control at the airport were actually very helpful and nice (although the information given was incorrect)
I took a day off from work to assist her with the paperwork and it did take one whole day:
-Since we plan on going to Sweden for christmas our first port of call was the Swedish embassy in Dublin. They accepted my wife's visa application, did not keep her passport, promised that it would be processed in time, but said that they could only grant it if we showed that she has the right to re-enter to Ireland. The thing is that her D-visa is a single entry visa and that single entry was used up when she came to Ireland.
Next stop was Burgh Quay and I assumed this would be a formality - after all, my wife had already sent in tons of documents and waited 5 months in the D-visa process.
First we went to the Garda desk, and after 40 minutes wait we were told to go to the justice.ie page and search for the EU1 form. Hurray! Regarding the re-entry to Ireland after visiting Sweden, they said we should ask at the visa office.
After q-ing 30 minutes at the visa office we were told that normally you need a residence card to apply for a re-entry visa, but that we could ask the Gardai for a covering letter with which my wife could apply for a re-entry visa at the visa office. They said we had to queue at the Garda desk again, but not at the visa office when we came back.
Back to the Garda desk then, and another 40 minutes of waiting. This time we were told flat out that they couldnt help us with a covering letter and that my wife wouldnt be able to leave Ireland until she got the residence card and that this process would take 6 months. Quite an unpleasant surprise.
We still went to the visa desk to see if there was any possibility of getting a re-entry vis anyway. The lady who we spoke to originally wasnt there so we had to wait some 30 minutes before managing to talk to somebody. This time we addressed by a seemingly senior female officer who among other things said "I can't believe that you are telling me that your wife is not allowed to travel with you to Sweden! [...] You are a Swedish citizen, right?" I had to explain that "well, it's not exactly entering Sweden that is the problem, but that according to her passport she can't re-enter Ireland and Swedish authorities want to avoid a situation where someone is in limbo between two countries." The officer seemed to get my point, said she would have to check EU regulations on this case, and asked us to come back 15 minutes after closing time.
45 minutes after closing time they told us we they were sorry we couldnt get a residence card today [long pause] but that they could issue a multiple entry d-visa valid for 6 months right away. One hour later my wife got this visa.
So the christmas is saved, but a few problems remain. As assume ppl on this form know by now, passports are asked in original. Since we are going to Sweden in less than two weeks I dont dare to send in our passports so I am planning to make nice colour copies of them, explain the situation and send them in at a later point.
What do you more experienced people think about this approach?