EEA4 saga - applying in Feb 2014

[Stoli]

Dear all, I am starting this thread to post all the steps I have gone through during my EEA4 application. Long story so far:

I am non-EEA (obviously) married to self-employed EU. Married in Sep 2005, came to UK Jul 2008 obtained EEA2 in Aug 2008 (I kid you not! - less than 2 weeks to decide the case, I got my passport and documents before the COA letter arrived ). This is when such luck ended.

So EEA4 application.
Applied on EEA4 + EEA3 in Aug 2013 after 5 years of residence. Got a refusal in Feb 2014 - on the grounds that not enough evidence had been submitted (which is true - for all five years my dearest had only provided one bank statement, two invoices, three tax returns and one national insurance contributions receipt). Fun part - we separated with husband the same year, autumn of 2013, so the situation is now ...just bad ..been to A&E with all sorts of heart problems caused by all this three times already.

Letter stated I could have appealed the decision or applied again from scratch.
Consulted with three lawyers (all three "good and highly recommended"):
Lawyer one said applying again would only aggravate the situation, go to appeal pretending to be very much in love marriage
Lawyer two said since it were our fault for not having provided sufficient documentation, make a new application - correctly this time round, plus application times were currently worse than even application times
Lawyer three scared me with me being an overstayer now who should make use of the chance to appeal because this were the last HO would ever give me. But called me back less than 15 minutes later to tell me that she had just spoken with a barrister who had said that were not true for EU family members, and that according to some regulation 14 a family member did not even need to live at the same address as the applicant.. wow!

So confusing and scary..

Ended up tossing all lawyers and their business cards, gathered a tonne (not exaggerating) of papers, wrote a cover letter and sent off my EEA4 (no EEA3 this time).

HO received the documents on 11 Feb 2014 and as of yet - 28 Feb at time of writing!!!! - they had not taken the payment yet. Obviously, no COA either.

Don't know what to even think, have all sorts of horrible things going through my mind.. Will keep you guys posted. If you have any suggestions or advice, please let me know.. sort of beyond desperate (even not sure what's happening with my right to work right now, am I now breaking the law, am I a criminal now?. )

[Hubba]

Lawyer 2 was correct and you ended up following his advice anyway (re-applying with extra documentation).

Don't worry that they haven't taken your payment yet - that means they haven't even bothered opening your envelope yet. Just sit back and relax. You're not illegal since, if the documentation provided is correct, you would have achieved permanent residency back in August 2013. If you are only separated (i.e. not divorced - no decree nisi) you are still legally your husband's (well, ex-husband) wife. So if he is still exercising treaty rights, you are legally here regardless of your permanent residency status.

I hope this calms you down. Try to keep your emotions in check, being desperate doesn't help and, in fact, just makes you more prone to errors in your process. I know emotions run high when it comes to this kind of subject (believe me, I freaked out a couple of times myself) but at the end, if there's no fault in the process, they can't reject it.

Cheers.

[Stoli]

Thank you Hubba

I just wish HO had some sort of an online tracking process, this would have prevented so many frustrations and saved so many human hours of HO employees (who end up taking our call anyway, despite HO attempts at hiding behind "no phone no email" ).

[Stoli]

As of today - funds have STILL not been taken from my account..

It may be useful for people to know:

I spoke with HO two weeks ago, and they advised that (apparently) the official time frame in which they would process payments were 28 working days from receipt of the documents. So in my case, documents received on 11 February -> they have until end of working day tomorrow if I don't count 11th Feb.

so so stressed out, I cannot understand why they would drag along taking money even?.

[chaoclive]

Don't hang on their every word. If they have confirmed that your package has been receive now all you have to/can do is sit back and relax.

If you haven't had confirmation that they have received your stuff, you could email them on: EuropeanOperational@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Alternatively, if you haven't tried already, you can call them: European Contact centre 0845 010 5200

Don't know if they will be able to help you out. If not, ask them how you can confirm what is going on. Tell them that you're worried but don't expect too much. They will not be particularly concerned about one single applicant. There are too many people waiting for answers that it won't be possible for them to provide you with a personalized service.

Relax and wait...you don't have any other choice.

[Stoli]

So to sum up, I have called them three times in total, enquiring why no payment had been taken. Every time they would tell me everything were fine and to just wait. Three days after my last call I received my application with all the documents, returned as invalid due to failure to provide payment information.

The very very VERY disgusting thing about it is that I have of course provided them with my cc details. I am 100% sure.
And I called them THREE times to enquire why payment had not been taken out yet, only to hear "oh everything is okay, do not worry, just wait".
So the really disgusting thing: I had my application form wire binded. You know, to prevent pages from falling everywhere and being lost. So this wire was bent. This happens when one rips pages out of a wire-binded document. So they pretty much ripped the payment page out, lost it. And that was the end of it. By the way, the documents were sent from Liverpool which I found a bit strange given the circumstances.

I have sent the documents again this Saturday. And I am planning to write a complaint.

[Stoli]

Aaaand already have a further update - Home Office charged my card.
They received the documents on 08 April and processed the payment on 09 April.
I am back to wishfully thinking that maybe, just maybe this time I have more luck and not have to wait MONTHS for nothing

PS> a bit of a funny story how I found out. I saw a charge on my bank statement which I did not recognize and called the bank to potentially dispute. That would have been a downer if I'd done that ) The charge on my bank statement showed as EURO.

[Stoli]

Ok end of saga:

Docs and EEA4 sent on 11 Feb, on 12 Feb they took the money
COA issued on 14 April
PR issued on 13 May (although received on 22 May with my special delivery, not sure what they've been doing with it )

[Hubba]

Ok end of saga:

Docs and EEA4 sent on 11 Feb, on 12 Feb they took the money
COA issued on 14 April
PR issued on 13 May (although received on 22 May with my special delivery, not sure what they've been doing with it )

Congrats.

[behold2014]

congrats...

can u pls tell us what documents u submitted?

[Stoli]

Sure.

For myself - only a cover letter to explain the contents of the pack, passport and photos
For EEA (self-employed):
NI contributions - covering over 5 years
Bank statements for each and every month. Yes.
One invoice for each month.
Passport
Tax returns for all years, no letter from accountant.

It was a very heavy pack, but I colour coded everything and wrote very clear and concise instructions for everything (ie what's what).
Also in the cover letter I pre-assumed where HO may have questions and wrote explanations (for example, no business bank account - and I wrote them that this is not a requirement but merely a recommendation. Same for having an accountant etc).

[behold2014]

thank you,
what was the date on the last invoice?
and did the invoice carry customers address or phone numbers?

[Stoli]

Invoices were of uniform standard only for the last two years, previous ones were pretty random.
I submitted one invoice for each month including that during which I sent the application.
RE date and address - on most of them addresses were present, yes, but no phone numbers.

[TJ10]

Ok end of saga:

Docs and EEA4 sent on 11 Feb, on 12 Feb they took the money
COA issued on 14 April
PR issued on 13 May (although received on 22 May with my special delivery, not sure what they've been doing with it )

Congrats.

Congratulations !!
I am in the same situation .
Just wanted to know have u mentioned ur Divorce if yes have have u attached ur Decree Absolute.

[Stoli]

Just wanted to know have u mentioned ur Divorce if yes have have u attached ur Decree Absolute.

Hi TJ10! I am not divorced ..only potentially considering.
But if you are divorced, then you should provide decree of absolute plus all supporting documentation for your EEA3 having exercised their treaty rights prior to divorce.
In any case, good luck to you - have you already applied?