Immigration Officers Not Knowing What To Do

[gorgeous]

Hey guys,

I have had two issues with immigration officers in the past two weeks and they are:

1st thing - I have a Stamp 4 EUFAM visa, and last weekend I was travelling with my partner and we went through the EU queue together as we usually do and there was never an issue with that until last weekend, where the officer said that as I have a Non-EU passport we BOTH should go through the Non-EU queue, even having a Stamp 4 EUFAM valid for 5 years.

We asked to speak with the supervisor as it was unacceptable, especially with my partner who is European. The supervisor didn't know what to do and the only excuse that he came up with was that many people are travelling with a revoked visa (???) and that is why they are checking it now. - To prove that this is a complete lie when we both went through the Non-EU queue, they didn't even look at my face when they saw my visa, didn't even scan my passport.

2nd issue - Coming back from my holidays, without my EU partner, they checked my visa and stamped my passport. And, according to the EU law, as soon as I have a residence card as a family member of the EU my passport shall not be stamped.

I asked him why he was stamping my passport and he said that it was simply because they need to check when I came back, and I said that this is checked when I leave the country where I was spending my holidays on. - It was 1 AM and I didn't ask to speak to anyone as I was too tired.

However, with that being said I was wondering if any of you have ever had any similar issue with them? They are immigration officers, they should now what to do, but apparently, they do what they want, which completely not right.

I am seriously thinking about raising a complaint with the Gardai about this because if this is happening to me, it's happening to someone else as well. When it shouldn't.

Cheers!

[broli]

Hi

All this happened in ireland ?
that's weird they never stamp my passport for 5 year may be something new started

[gorgeous]

Hi

All this happened in ireland ?
that's weird they never stamp my passport for 5 year may be something new started

Yeah! Weird, isn't it? This has happened once, but not anymore till yesterday, which was totally weird. But obviously, they don't know what to do when it comes to EUFAM people.

This is a shame, to be honest. I really want to complain about this, even though I know that they won't do anything about it...

[jlad]

Well, as far as i know, stamping your passport or not depends if you are travelling alone or with your EU partner and/or if he/she is exercising EU treaty rights in Ireland - correct me if i am wrong. I am holding a non-EU passport but is a non-visa required national to all Schengen/UK/Ireland, so that means if i am travelling alone, sometimes i do not even show them my German residence card (family members of union citizen), and they usually just stamp it anyhow - i like collecting stamps If i am travelling with me Irish partner, then sometimes they do and sometimes they dont, depending if i ask for entry stamp.

[Alixlboy]

I would suggest that we should all complain against this sort of behaviour. I have heard it from a couple of other people as well, that they have started to treat Stamp 4 EU FAM holders in a very bad manner and if we don't do anything, this will continue to happen.

[gorgeous]

I would suggest that we should all complain against this sort of behaviour. I have heard it from a couple of other people as well, that they have started to treat Stamp 4 EU FAM holders in a very bad manner and if we don't do anything, this will continue to happen.

I think so too! We should definitely make a complaint about this. They're treating us the way they want to. They never follow the EU rules!

[Alixlboy]

Exactly.

[max307]

I think you are making an issue out of nothing here and please do not take it personal, just trying to give you my opinion.

Issue 1 – The fact that an immigration officer at his or her own discretion allowed you to use the EU queue before when travelling with your EU partner does not grant you any right to use that queue as you wish to do so. The rules are clear, EU queue for EU passport holders and Non-EU queue for Non-EU passport holders, it is not written anywhere that if you hold certain visa or residence and travelling with your EU spouse you can use a queue or the other one. I would advise you the use the Non-EU queue that is the one you should be using if entering Ireland with a Non-EU passport.

Issue 2 – Any reason why you don’t want to get your passport stamped when entering the country? If you are planning to complain to every country that enforces that rule you are going to have a big task ahead of you. Are you able to enter or leave Schengen countries where you passport is not stamped?

[Alixlboy]

I think we simply need more clarity. There has to be clear rules and they must be communicated clearly with the immigrants. If some of them are treated in one way and others in the other way, this will obviously be wrong, as all immigration officer must follow the EU rules. I have been on stamp 4 for nearly 5 years, and some times my passport is stamped and sometimes it s not and it obviously makes no sense.

[gorgeous]

I think you are making an issue out of nothing here and please do not take it personal, just trying to give you my opinion.

Issue 1 – The fact that an immigration officer at his or her own discretion allowed you to use the EU queue before when travelling with your EU partner does not grant you any right to use that queue as you wish to do so. The rules are clear, EU queue for EU passport holders and Non-EU queue for Non-EU passport holders, it is not written anywhere that if you hold certain visa or residence and travelling with your EU spouse you can use a queue or the other one. I would advise you the use the Non-EU queue that is the one you should be using if entering Ireland with a Non-EU passport.

Issue 2 – Any reason why you don’t want to get your passport stamped when entering the country? If you are planning to complain to every country that enforces that rule you are going to have a big task ahead of you. Are you able to enter or leave Schengen countries where you passport is not stamped?

Hi Max,

Don't worry, I appreciate your answer.

Actually, there is a rule which says that if you are travelling with your EU spouse you can use the EU queue:

EU Law
The right to use the EU line comes from Article 24 Equal treatment with EU citizens.
See 2004/38/EC Article 24(1)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex ... 29:en:HTML

Article 24

Equal treatment

1. Subject to such specific provisions as are expressly provided for in the Treaty and secondary law, all Union citizens residing on the basis of this Directive in the territory of the host Member State shall enjoy equal treatment with the nationals of that Member State within the scope of the Treaty. The benefit of this right shall be extended to family members who are not nationals of a Member State and who have the right of residence or permanent residence.

In regards to the second question about my passport being stamped:

Ireland

By Irish Law, no entry stamp on your passport.

STATUTORY INSTRUMENT S.I. No. 656 of 2006

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2006/en/si/0656.html

(4) An immigration officer shall not, at the point of entry, place a stamp in the passport of a qualifying family member who presents to the officer a valid residence card.

And in the EU law, it says:

Article 5

Right of entry

3. The host Member State shall not place an entry or exit stamp in the passport of family members who are not nationals of a Member State provided that they present the residence card provided for in Article 10.

I don't mind having my passport stamped, and I mean this when returning to Ireland, not in every EU state, as I don't have an EU passport, I know that I need to have my passport stamped, but not in Ireland. So, that's why I don't get immigration here. As you can see above, they clearly are not following the EU and even Irish rules. Sometimes they stamp my passport, but some other times they don't. They simply do what they want, and this is not right.

I hope you get my point.

[gorgeous]

I think we simply need more clarity. There has to be clear rules and they must be communicated clearly with the immigrants. If some of them are treated in one way and others in the other way, this will obviously be wrong, as all immigration officer must follow the EU rules. I have been on stamp 4 for nearly 5 years, and some times my passport is stamped and sometimes it s not and it obviously makes no sense.

Exactly! That's my point. We need to start complaining about this, they need to follow EU and Irish law and not what they want. They are immigration officers not even Gardai anymore.

[Alixlboy]

Absolutely! I agree with you 100%.