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UK Illegally charging EEA Family members with visa fees & denying embassy visa applications

Use this section for any queries concerning the EU Settlement Scheme, for applicants holding pre-settled and settled status.

Moderators: Casa, John, ChetanOjha, archigabe, CR001, push, JAJ, ca.funke, Amber, zimba, vinny, Obie, EUsmileWEallsmile, batleykhan, meself2, geriatrix

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rollix
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UK Illegally charging EEA Family members with visa fees & denying embassy visa applications

Post by rollix » Sat Jun 23, 2018 4:50 pm

The applicant is a Chinese national married to an Italian national who was planning to travel with her
husband from China to Italy and was in possession of an Italian issued Class C Schengen visa for Family
reunification.

Since they had to change flights in the UK before reaching their final destination in Italy,
they tried to apply for a visa.

They wanted to request a visa in the British Consulate of Guangzhou.

Besides, every diplomatic office they contacted by phone or in person, refused to process such request and told them to submit their application through the UKVI website.

They also called the British embassy in Beijing
but were denied any appointment stating that they were not able to hand out a visa.

The UKVI website redirected them to http://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk/.

While submitting her online request, it was impossible for them to proceed using the option for non EU family member of an EU citizen, as an NIS and a UK residential address were requested as mandatory fields.

The applicant was charged with the cost of 545 CNY (about 75 euro) and was denied access to any type of accelerated procedure as stated in art. 5 of Directive 38/2004.

The applicant then received an appointment to go on October XXth 2016 to the Shenzen UKVI center to submit further documentation.

At the Shenzen UKVI center the applicant stated one again her marital status with a EU citizen, but the personnel continued to apply the normal procedure.

Despite opposition and multiple communication attempts, a visa was finally issued after about 30 days, resulting in an intercontinental flight lost.

This procedure is not in conformity with the directive and the COM (2009) 313 final ( Member
states may use premium call lines or services of an external company to set up an appointment but must
offer the possibility of direct access to the consulate to third country family members).

Furthermore the website doesn't allow a specific option for the non EU family member of EU citizen.

Complaints submitted to the UKBA demanding refund and a pro-bono compensation were twice denied and swiftly terminated with non-sensical justifications.

Intervention of the EU funded Solvit was unilaterally terminated with no action literally because "the SolvIT UK colleague could not be bothered to log into the UKBA website to simulate a visa request as an EEA Family member".

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Do any of you guys have any idea how to address this despicable behaviour of the UK government?
Hundreds of EEA family members are illegally charged fees everyday and made to wait weeks instead of days for their visas.

Is the only option having to use one of those insanely priced attorneys, with EEA family members being pretty much priced out of basic human rights?

vinny
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Re: UK Illegally charging EEA Family members with visa fees & denying embassy visa applications

Post by vinny » Sun Jun 24, 2018 7:03 am

She should have had a choice.
This is not intended to be legal or professional advice in any jurisdiction. Please click on any given links for further information. Refer to the source of any quotes.
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

rollix
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Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:52 am

Re: UK Illegally charging EEA Family members with visa fees & denying embassy visa applications

Post by rollix » Sun Jun 24, 2018 6:40 pm

True enough in a case of Family visit to UK from Non EU permanent resident,

but for simple transit in the UK, without having a UK residential address or local TAX code, it's impossible to request a UK EEA FAMILY PERMIT, the web portal simply doesn't allow it through mandatory fieds.

The only option to proceed is basically requesting a transit visa, which trigger fees.

They are basically milking NON-EU EEA Family member travellers demanding hundreds of pounds in express fees to issue visas in reasonable time, while the visa should be free, prioritary for what regards issuing times, and worth to mention, documentally simplified.

Visiting a UK embassy abroad to present a visa issuance demand will result in a denial of service, whith embassy personnel literally saying they have no power to process visas.

Have you guys ever met an embassy who has no power to process visas in the whole planet? :shock:

rollix
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Re: UK Illegally charging EEA Family members with visa fees & denying embassy visa applications

Post by rollix » Sun Jun 24, 2018 6:53 pm

Another horrible aspect regards the UK not recognizing family member resident permits of many EU states, which again means being requested a UK visa when boarding a plane from outside the EU.

I can't see how such policy translates as the Non-EU EEA family member having the same rights of the EEA citizen when accompanied or travelling alone to join his/her family.

God only knows how many people are denied boarding every day due to this blatant violation of basic family rights.

Ballmigirl17
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Re: UK Illegally charging EEA Family members with visa fees & denying embassy visa applications

Post by Ballmigirl17 » Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:12 am

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/call ... r-services


Thought you might find this useful!

rollix
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Re: UK Illegally charging EEA Family members with visa fees & denying embassy visa applications

Post by rollix » Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:25 pm

Thanks, I've emailed them, good tip.

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