EEA family visa - told cannot apply for COA

[Gillapple]

Hi all,
Please help as I have tried getting advice from the home office with no luck. my partner is a greek national and i am south african. i was issued a family visa based on our relationship of4 years and provided documentary evidence of this. we were apart for 10 months but kept in touch regularly.
I came to london after having been told that i could then just send my eea forms in to obtain my residence stamp. now that i am here i am told i cannot apply for a COA as my visa is inadequate and if i apply for residence stamp using the eea forms, it will most probably be denied or my visa revoked as we were apart and the law states 18 months of cohaibitation.
is this the case? is it just pointless trying to get this after spending all this money to get here and giving up my work because the home office here supplied me with misleading information?

[Wanderer]

Hi all,
Please help as I have tried getting advice from the home office with no luck. my partner is a greek national and i am south african. i was issued a family visa based on our relationship of4 years and provided documentary evidence of this. we were apart for 10 months but kept in touch regularly.
I came to london after having been told that i could then just send my eea forms in to obtain my residence stamp. now that i am here i am told i cannot apply for a COA as my visa is inadequate and if i apply for residence stamp using the eea forms, it will most probably be denied or my visa revoked as we were apart and the law states 18 months of cohaibitation.
is this the case? is it just pointless trying to get this after spending all this money to get here and giving up my work because the home office here supplied me with misleading information?

I thought the CoA was for those on UK immigration route, you seem to be on the EEA immigration route.

[Docterror]

Gillapple, I am not too sure I understand your problem all too well. What visa are you currently on? Why are you trying to get the CoA now? What does all this have to do with the EEA forms?

Please clarify!

[JAJ]

COA rules do not apply to family members of EEA nationals, although evidence of such status (EEA2/EEA4) may well be required.
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applyi ... artnership

[Gillapple]

thank you all for your replies.
my problem is that I am here on an eea family visa valid for 6 months.
I wish to extend my visa as I specifically came to be with my partner (we are a same sex couple)
During our 4 year relationship we were apart for work reasons for 10 months during 2006.
I have now been told that I cannot apply for EEA residence stamp because we have not co-habitated continuously for 18 months prior to wanting to apply for the eea residence stamp.
I wanted to get a COA as we wanted to get married. She is a Greek National.
I have been told I cannot apply for the COA as my visa is shorter than 6 months and if I apply for the EEA residence stamp, they could revoke my current visa as we did not stay together continuously, even though they approved my family visa (in south africa) so was I supposed to know that I would not be allowed to stay?
Please help

[Docterror]

Now, this is a bit of a pickle that the HO seems to have put you in. They should either not have given you the EEA Family Permit (EEAFP) or since they have already done so, extend your EEAFP by furnishing you the Residence Card using the exact same documents that you used to the Entry Clearance as the basis to prove that you are an unmarried couple.

You can apply for the CoA whilst on a EEAFP, or better yet, should be able to register the Civil Partnership without one since non-EEA family members are exempt from needing one. Have you taken a printout of the page that is provided by JAJ above and have a word with the local Registerar yet? Insist to him that according to the HO you do not need the CoA to give notice to register a Civil Partnership and show the EEAFP as proof that you are the family member of an EEA national.

Failing that, apply for the CoA whilst still on the EEAFP. The law that you stated that applicants with less than 6 months of leave to remain cannot apply for it has been overturned by the court.

[Gillapple]

Now, this is a bit of a pickle that the HO seems to have put you in. They should either not have given you the EEA Family Permit (EEAFP) or since they have already done so, extend your EEAFP by furnishing you the Residence Card using the exact same documents that you used to the Entry Clearance as the basis to prove that you are an unmarried couple.

You can apply for the CoA whilst on a EEAFP, or better yet, should be able to register the Civil Partnership without one since non-EEA family members are exempt from needing one. Have you taken a printout of the page that is provided by JAJ above and have a word with the local Registerar yet? Insist to him that according to the HO you do not need the CoA to give notice to register a Civil Partnership and show the EEAFP as proof that you are the family member of an EEA national.

Failing that, apply for the CoA whilst still on the EEAFP. The law that you stated that applicants with less than 6 months of leave to remain cannot apply for it has been overturned by the court.

Thank you so much for your advice. This forum has provided me with more information that 2 lawyers I have contacted!
I have just phoned the registrars office and they said we can register our civil partnership! I am going on friday to register and will let you know if I am successful.
Do you think that once we have registered our civil partnership we should get my eea residence stamp without much problems?

[Docterror]

You will only be giving notice of your intention to register the partnership on Friday. The actual ceremony will only be atleast 2 more weeks after that. Expect an interview with questions about your partner for the both of you from the Registerar to acertain that you are indeed a couple.

Once you register your partnership, you will have an absolute right to stay along with your EEA partner and should not have much trouble with the Residence Card application.The form to use for the extension is EEA2.

[Gillapple]

Hi everyone

i just want to thank you all for your replies and brilliant advice and I'm pleased to tell you all that we registered our intent to form a civil partnership with absolutely no problems.

The council had received new information from the home office which was shown to us,stating that eea family members do not need a COA.

Thank you for the brilliant advice

[avjones]

Best of luck - do you have a date for the ceremony?

[Gillapple]

Best of luck - do you have a date for the ceremony?

Yep - we getting hitched at the beginning of december

[Gillapple]

You will only be giving notice of your intention to register the partnership on Friday. The actual ceremony will only be atleast 2 more weeks after that. Expect an interview with questions about your partner for the both of you from the Registerar to acertain that you are indeed a couple.

Once you register your partnership, you will have an absolute right to stay along with your EEA partner and should not have much trouble with the Residence Card application.The form to use for the extension is EEA2.

Hi - its me again
I just want your advice regarding the EEA forms once we have registered our civil partnership.
Do I send in all the documents I used to apply for my visa as well as all our current documents such as bank statements, joint bank accounts and our lease agreement to reflect the same address and the civil partnership certificate?
Also would you suggest that I use a lawyer/agent or is it safe for me to send it on my own? (The lawyers are very costly and I would avoid it if I can)

Thanks again

[Docterror]

Once you register your Civil Partnership, there is no need to submit the documents used to obtain the EEAFP. Just submit 3 months of payslips or proof of other forms of treaty rights being exercised by your partner along with the application forms and your passports and the Civil Partnership Certificate to obtain the Residence Card endorsed into your passport. However, proving co-habitation makes the application easier and safer to assess.

I do not suggest using any solicitor for the application forms as they are pretty easy forms to navigate. Just use your common sense and if you have any doubts, drop in.

Applying for the Registration Certificate (Residence Permit) using the EEA1 for your EEA partner along with the EEA2 application, in the same envelope, should speeden up your application, which would otherwise take upto 6 months or more. Search for posts by 'yankeegirl' and 'osiris' to have a look at their experience.