EEA FP: To accompany/to join

[Curlysue]

I got a reply from the European Ops Team. They said:

"With regards to your below query, the EEA Family Permit is issued in line with regulation 12 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006. This regulation states that the purpose of an EEA Family Permit is to allow the non-EEA national family member of an EEA national to accompany or join his/her sponsor in the UK.

Although the wording on the vignette says only “to accompany”, in practice this means “to accompany or join”; the omission is simply due to a lack of space on the vignette and it will not prevent your civil partner from joining you in the UK. This right is enshrined by Article 5 of Directive 2004/38/EC and the UK has fully implemented it into the Regulations as cited above."

I then asked if they were able to provide anything that they can give to Easyjet, they said:
"If your partner has an EEA Family Permit that is valid for travel, you should experience no issues from the carrier. However, if you wish to confirm with them beforehand, you may give them this email inbox address and we will answer any queries they have directly."

Dear Chaoclive,
I am a new member on this forum so I cannot send private messages that's why I have to contact you here. Hope you will see this post and help me if you can.

I am a non-EEA (Ukrainian) citizen married to a British citizen, we have been living and working in Spain for nearly two years now.
I applied for my EEA FP in Madrid on May 19, 2017 under a Surinder Singh judgement as we planned to travel to the UK together on July 4, 2017. Unfortunately, it took the UKVI much more than 15 working days to process my application so I only got my passport back today.

As a result, I could not accompany my husband on July 4, 2017 and he had to travel to the UK alone as he had prior commitments there that he was unable to postpone.

I am now going to fly to the UK on Sunday, July 23 on my own with Ryanair from Malaga to Bournemouth. I have heard of Ryanair and other airlines denying boarding for EEA FP "to accompany..." holders on the basis that they were travelling without their EEA partner and there fore they were in this case "joining" their partners in the UK which would contradict the wording of a Vignette endorsement.

My husband has been in the UK for two weeks now, he can't travel back to Spain to accompany me on my flight but he will be waiting for me at Bournemouth airport and will be able to clarify the situation to the Immigration Officers there if necessary.

I tried emailing European Operations Team but I got an automated reply that they only deal with internal enquiries now and there's an email for general public enquiries, which I emailed and it said it might take 20 working days to get a response.
Could you possibly forward me that email you got from the European Operations at daryacooke {at} gmail.com ? And how was your journey back then? Were there no issues with Easyjet?
Thank you in advance!

[fullcircle]

Hi Curlysue,

Sorry to bother you, but finally I see someone who has at least some similar case like us and I would like to ask a few questions if you don't mind.

My wife is a non-EEA citizen just like you. Myself is an EEA citizen but have permanent residency in the UK since 2014. We got married in 2015 and since we live outside of EU/UK. We decided to move to the UK before my absence exceed the 2 years and I'll lose my PR status, so my wife appiled for EEA FP.

She applied on the 16 June 2017 and we stated in the application our planned travel date in the UK will be the 27 July 2017, but today is already 20 July and we still waiting for the visa.
Of course we tried to contact UKVI and got an answer the application being considered and currently awaiting for decision, but after all this and what I read from others, I don't really think we will receive the visa now until the 27 July.

My questions are:
1. (This is maybe the main question) What is the date on your visa than? Starts from when?
Because if starts from the 4 July than you already lost more than 2 weeks from the validity, but if something after 4 July than it means UKVI not only doesn't care about the priority and 15 days processing time, but neither about requested/stated travel dates.
2. did UKVI sent any apology letter together with your passport explaning why the process took so long?
3. did you have any loss so far because of the delay e.g resign at work at certain date because of planned travel etc (just asking because we probably will have some and planning to seek legal advice if that will be the case)

I'm also curious about will you be able to fly alone to the UK? Just because I heard the same things you mentioned.

Finally, I wish you guys good luck and if you don't mind to share your experience than pls do.
Thank you!

[ibwe]

Hi fullcircle,

Would love to hear how did it go.

I am also in the same boat except that, I decided to withdraw the application.

We had planned to travel to the UK early August. I am a non-EEA citizen and applied for an EEA FP on June 05, 2017 in Beijing, China. I chose this route because the documentation of EEA FP says it is to be issued on "priority basis". Initially it was supposed to take a maximum of 15 working days but then on the very 15th since I received a letter to say that the application has been received, I received another letter saying the application was not straightforward. After numerous calling and emailing the third party service, the only answer I got from them every time was "to wait patiently".

Since I was supposed to travel on July 17th to my wife's home (Bulgaria) - I had to change flight (had to pay for this). Changed to 27th but when no answer came by, I decided to withdraw the application and asked for my passport back ASAP, citing the traveling arrangements and, most importantly, how stressful and total nightmare is it to live in China, as a foreigner, without your passport. It is extremely inconvenient. On 15th of July, the visa center (VFS) wrote the consulate an email and yet there was no response. I knew of this when I went to ask them to do it again on the 19th. I have not received any update as to when will I get my passport back.

I do not understand as to why they are holding the passports for such a long time. It is not convenient for third country nationals who are residing in other countries. If I was in my country, I would have asked for another passport and continue with my other travel plans.

I would love to read the answers to your questions as well.