I am an Irish national, and my wife is a Filipino national. We are hoping to move to the Netherlands exercising EU Directive 2004/38/EC. Our application was submitted at the embassy in Manila, Philippines on 12/12/16. Having informed the embassy of the entitled expedited process, we were told that we should receive feedback within 15 days. On 28/12/16 we were informed that the visa application had been forwarded to the IND in the Netherlands for further information. This morning we learned that the facilitating visa has been refused, and we believe that this is incorrect.
Despite the application being submitted in English, we received our visa refusal letter in Dutch.We spent the morning attempting to translate the letter, and this is the response we were provided with:
The documents which we submitted at the embassy in Manila were:Rationale
The purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not sufficiently demonstrated. YOU indicated in your application that you want to qualify for a visa and thereby appeal to Directive 2004/38/EC. However, you have no or insufficient shown to you as a family member of an EU citizen travels with those EU nationals or to will stay in a Member State other than the Member State of which he or she is a national. Considering this you are not eligible for the requested visa.
No flight reservations have been made to show that you are traveling together, neither is evidence submitted which suggests that you plan to join the EU citizen in the Netherlands. The purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not sufficiently demonstrated. YOU indicated in your application that you want to qualify for a visa and thereby appeals to Directive 2004/38/EC. However, you have no means of objective and verifiable evidence demonstrated that you can be regarded as a family member of an EU national, as defined in Article 2, paragraph 2 or Article 3, paragraph 2, of the Directive. Having this will not eligible for the requested visa.
There is doubt as to the authenticity of the Philippine marriage. There is no evidence of verification by the Irish authorities.
- My wife's Filipino passport
- A copy of my Irish passport
- An original copy of our marriage certificate, including a certificate of authenticity from the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Philippines.
This is all of the documents we were told we needed to include in our application to satisfy the requirements.
1. Firstly, we informed the embassy at the time of submitting the application that we intended to travel to the Netherlands together, and exercise my freedom of movement rights under EU Directive 2004/38/EC to plan to settle there. As far as I am aware, there is no requirement under this directive that I already by residing in the Netherlands.
2. I was also under the impression that travel itineraries etc. could not be requested, and certainly that a lack of confirmed travel is not the basis of a refusal.
3. Article 2, paragraph 2 etc. states that my wife needs to show that she is eligible by being the spouse etc. of an EU national. We were under the impression that a copy of our marriage certificate, authenticated by the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Philippines, would satisfy this.
4. There can be no doubt as to the authenticity of the Philippine marriage, since the marriage certificate itself has been certified to be genuine. They did not request visa stamps, flight itineraries, photos etc. to show that our relationship is genuine.
We were told that we have two options - to reapply, or lodge a formal objection to the visa ruling. I do not accept the reasons for the visa ruling. Am I right in thinking that, with the information provided, a visa should have been issued for my wife under EU Law?
The appeals process seems like a very long and drawn out procedure, even more so since we are situated in the provence where mail takes a very long time. Would it be worth just applying again, or are they likely to refuse he visa again on the same grounds?
Any help appreciated.