I have not been very vocal on this site about concerted efforts to tackle the above but...
Following on from this pinned topic: http://www.ukresident.com/forums/topic/ ... -fmrs-wrs/, I have, as of today, received a further update from the EC re. the above petition (lodged in November 2008) that over 100 individuals supported and signed. Moderators, can this be pinned please?
The report reads thus:
Dear Mrs xxx,
Further to your letter I would like to inform you that the Committee on Petitions continued its examination of your petition at its meeting of the 1st and 2nd of September 2009, taking due account of the written and oral information provided by the EC, I am enclosing a copy of the EC's written reply.
Following its discussion, the committee decided to ask the EC to keep monitoring the processing of residence permits application in the UK and provide an update in due time.
...
3. Commision reply, for 1442/2008 received on 15th May 2009
Observations of the Commission
"...The delays in issuing residence documents are contrary to Community law, as confirmed by the ECJ... According to the UKBA's official website, in March 2009 the UK authorities were processing postal applications for registration certificates received before May 2008 and postal applications for a residence card, a permanent residence card and a document certifying permanent residence received before February 2008.
Regarding the retention of documents, as far as the applicable Community law on documents to be submitted with the application for residence permit is concerned, Articles 8(3), 8(5) and 10(2)(a) of the Directive entitles the UK to require, with the application for a residence document, the production of a valid travel document. It does not provide for originals of the presented documents to be withheld until the decision on the residence certificate/card application is taken. (bolding mine)
Member states are entitled to check that the travel documents are genuine; however, the administrative practice of withholding the original travel documents until the decision on a residence card application is taken, represents an unjustifiable obstacle to the right of EU citizens and their family members to move and reside freely, and is contrary to the Directive as those travel documents are required by Articles 4(1) and 5(1) of this Directive in order to exercise the community right to move and reside freely in the territory of another Member State.
Having, in addition received more than 100 individual complaints on this issue, the Commission contacted the UK authorities on 19th March 2009 and asked them to inform the Commission of all the measures (legislative, administrative, organisational and staff reinforcement) that will be taken to issue the complainants with the requested residence documents, to clear the backlog as soon as possible and to ensure that the obligations under Directive 2004/38/EC will be respected in the future, together with an indicative time-table.
The reply is still pending.
4. Commssion reply, received on 1st September 2009
As indicated in its previous communication on petition 1442/2008, the commission contacted the UK authorities on 19th March 2009 on the issue of residence documents and asked them to inform the Commission of all the measures (legislative, administrative, organisational and staff reinforcement) that will be taken to issue the complainants with the requested residence documents, to clear the backlog as soon as possible and to ensure that the obligations under Directive 2004/38/EC will be respected in the future, together with an indicative time-table.
The UK authorities replied on 27 May 2009. They accepted that applicants for residence documents have experienced delays in receiving decisions and recognised the seriousness of the situation. The UK authorities have put in place a comprehensive plan which is designed to see a return to the appropriate service standards, as required by Directive 2004/38/EC by December 2009. They have significantly expanded the number of caseworkers making decisions on European applications. This increase in resources, coupled with improved casework training and casework processes is, according to the UK authorities, already proving successful as the number of casework decisions having trebled from an average of approximately 500 decisions per week in February to the present of over 1500 decisions per week.
To address the problem of the return of documents in the cases at issue, the UK authorities introduced, from 1 June 2009, a dedicated e-mail address for customers requesting return of their passports for travel within 10 working days. Urgent requests for the return of passports (i.e. those less than 10 working days) will also continue to be dealt with by the UKBA Contact Centre (Tel Number 0845 0105200).
The commission will continue to monitor how the new scheme works."
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I am very pleased with the positive turn around time and outcome of this petition (just under 1 year) and, once again, would like to thank all supporters, signatories and contributors throughout the process. We have already begun to see faster RC processing times for fresh applications but I am not so certain that the backlog is being approached with similar vigor! Individual reports may yet disprove this.
I therefore still encourage individual feedback to the EC on this matter if one feels that the above scheme still fails to deliver, in practice, what it has been designed to do.
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