Documents not returned after Irish visa refusal

Hi everyone

After my wife applied for a EU spouse Irish visa in October we got a refusal letter on 27th April stating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria did not certify our marriage certificate. I am a British citizen and we are now under the Withdrawal Agreement. We want to appeal and were told in the refusal letter that we can with 2 months.

They haven't returned our documents.
Shesent an email to the Irish Embassy we submitted the visa application ( Abuja ) last week to kindly return our documents but no response yet.

Please is this normal??

We have 1 month to appeal and the Embassy has not returned the documents. Please advise where we have missed it?

Hi,
If you document was not confirmed/certified by an issue or country authority it could be that this document was treated as fake.
If you still think that provided document was genuine, try to request the duplicate from the issue authority and use it for appeal.

What specific documents?

Visa offices only return original documents that cannot be easily replaced, which usually include birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport and national ID.

All other documents will be kept along with your visa application and they will not be returned, unless you have specifically mentioned which documents you wish to be returned and have paid relevant fees or provided certified copies for those documents when submitting the application.

avta wrote: ↑

Thu May 27, 2021 5:55 pm

Hi,
If you document was not confirmed/certified by an issue or country authority it could be that this document was treated as fake.
If you still think that provided document was genuine, try to request the duplicate from the issue authority and use it for appeal.

Thanks for your quick response. I will. But none of the original documents have been returned, passports, original marriage certificate, etc have not been returned. Is this the normal procedure Avta?

littlerr wrote: ↑

Thu May 27, 2021 5:58 pm

What specific documents?

Visa offices only return original documents that cannot be easily replaced, which usually include birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport and national ID.

All other documents will be kept along with your visa application and they will not be returned, unless you have specifically mentioned which documents you wish to be returned and have paid relevant fees or provided certified copies for those documents when submitting the application.

Thanks for helping Littlerr. None of the original documents have been returned. Passports, Marriage certificate, birth affidavit etc, not one document has been returned. All fees were paid. I thought after refusal, those documents are meant to be returned then you can decide to either appeal or not. Guys what to do you think?

Yes they should always be returned. I honestly don’t know what had happened. Certain visas are forwarded to the Dublin office for decision making, while the passport/certificates etc may remain with the embassy. So there is a chance that the decision and documents are sent in two separate packages. Maybe one of them got lost in transit, or maybe they haven’t sent them out at all.

You just have to keep trying to contact your local embassy. You can also send an email to the Dublin visa office visamail@justice.ie to ask them to check whether they are still holding your documents.

littlerr wrote: ↑

Thu May 27, 2021 7:02 pm

Yes they should always be returned. I honestly don’t know what had happened. Certain visas are forwarded to the Dublin office for decision making, while the passport/certificates etc may remain with the embassy. So there is a chance that the decision and documents are sent in two separate packages. Maybe one of them got lost in transit, or maybe they haven’t sent them out at all.

You just have to keep trying to contact your local embassy. You can also send an email to the Dublin visa office visamail@justice.ie to ask them to check whether they are still holding your documents.

Yup Littlerr I think I will send an email to Dublin and cc Abuja as well tomorrow. Good idea . I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

Hi everyone,

So I wanted to give an update.

We did get the documents from the Embassy before the deadline and decided to appeal the visa decision in June.

We got an email yesterday approving the visa! Praise Jesus!

Thank you soo much for the good work you are doing for people.


I have a question regarding this visa. It is a C visa under EU Treaty Rights and although it states that it is valid for 3 months, if my wife waits till 1st week of December to travel what are the implications?

Also as a UK national working in Ireland I applied for a Withdrawal Agreement Beneficiary Card and during the appointment was granted a Stamp 4B Permission Article 50 in my passport. I tried doing some research on the Internet but couldn't get any information on Stamp 4B. I have sent emails to various places including eutreatyrights@justice.ie and burghquayregoffice@justice.ie but my request has not been addressed.

Does anyone have any light regarding this.

Many thanks and any info will be helpful

God bless

Etaa

Congrats on the visa approval.

It’s valid for 3 months so she can come to Ireland on any day before the visa expires. There is no difference whether she travels on the first or last day of the visa.

Stamp 4B is merely a certificate confirming your rights to permanent residency in Ireland as a UK national. Since UK citizens have permanent residency rights in Ireland anyway, this stamp does not do anything other than proving that you have been living in Ireland as a resident before Brexit happens.

Thanks Littlerr for the clarification regarding Stamp 4B. It's just that I couldn't get any information on the Internet regarding this type of Stamp 4 but others such as 4A and 4D are well documented with the attached permissions on Government official websites. Thanks again.



Regarding my wife's visa, we want her to come and stay. I understand she has to apply to stay before the visa expires (90 days maximum for a C visa). So if she decides to travel to Ireland in the first week of December, she would have about 2 weeks to apply before the visa expires, let's say the last day of the visa is 24th December, right?

From your experience and knowledge, can she arrive on the first week of December and be granted 2 months to stay even though the time frame indicated that she can seek entry to Ireland on the visa is 23rd September 2021 to 24th December 2021?

Also why is stated that the Immigration officer at the border will determine how many days she can stay?



Many thanks

She can come on any day as long as the visa is valid. She will be given 90 days to apply for her residence permit at the border.

The immigration officer has the right to determine how many days they will give her, but unless there is any special conditions, it’s always going to be 90 days.

Many thanks Littlerr.

It sounds clear enough.

You and your team have been amazing, really helpful.

Have an incredible weekend.

Etaa

Hi Littlerr,

I have a quick question.

When my wife arrives Ireland, within the 3 months of arrival she will have to apply for residence using Form EU1 accompanied with other supporting documents including her passport. Hopefully in a few weeks she ought to be given a temporary stamp 4.

I want to be clear that this temporary stamp 4 will be in her passport and returned to her, with which she can apply for a job or perhaps travel out of Ireland if need be and can return without applying for a visa.

Kindly confirm that the passport submitted with the Form EU1 will be returned hopefully with the temporary stamp 4 and she can travel out of Ireland and return without applying for a visa as well as get a job. My concern is how soon can she get her passport back after sending it with the Form EU1.

Cheers

Etaa

Yes with a Stamp 4 she can apply for jobs and travel back to Ireland.

Once she receives the letter for temporary Stamp 4, she needs to book an appointment with Burgh Quay (Dublin only) or local Garda station (non-Dublin) to complete the registration and get an IRP card.

The IRP card is proof that she can work in Ireland and travel back to Ireland from abroad without visa. Since late last year, people no longer get their passport stamped. There will still be an initial registration stamp in her passport, but it’s just a formality and doesn’t have any effect for work or travel purposes.

Hi Littlerr

Thanks for that information and quick response.

Does she need to submit her passport with the Form EU1 or just color photocopies of each page?

I know changes have occurred during the pandemic. And uncertain if original documents are still being required.

Thanks


Etaa