EEA FP decline- reapply for tourist visa?

[Lucia17]

Hi,

and thank you for taking your time to help me.

My husband (a Chinese national) applied for a EEA family permit (I have to confess it was my idea). I am an EA national and my parents and I lived in the UK for years. I have a permanent residence card as well and a small business. My husband has his own business in China and is both financially and time independent. We pretty much work from home most of the time and move between UK and China, but our latest move was blocked by the immigration- he was left behind.

The problem is this: we got married a year ago and applied for the family permit this summer. The application was rejected because we 'did not supply wedding pictures ' and the ECO doubted that the 'wedding actually took place'. The wedding took place in the UK and we supplied a notarised wedding certificate, so I find this reason to be particularly ridiculous.

I decided to appeal right away but the whole process is taking ages- its been 2 months and we heard absolutely nothing. When I enquired I was told that they received the appeal but there is no other news they can provide.

I am 5 months pregnant (yey lucky me!) but my husband is stuck in China atm. I want him to come over and well pretty much be here for the birth of our first child. Ridiculously we are considering me flying over to China so we can be together for the birth, an idea I am not so keen on as I'd prefer being close to my parents and my doctor.

Now I need help- I decided to skip the appeal process and apply for a new visa- the question is should I apply for a tourist visa so he can simply come over for now and wait for the appeal result or should we really for EEA FP? Truth to be told I am not keen on EEA FP as I am waiting for them to come up with another ridiculous reason to reject it, and now with the whole Brexit, I am not sure if they don't become more difficult. Would they actually find this suspicious if we apply for tourist visa after having EEA FP rejected?

Thank you!

[Obie]

You can give the EEA family permit another go. I do not believe they will grant a visitors visa in the circumstances of your case.

[dan1988uk]

According to your post you actually didn't submit pictures. I don't understand why people are not following the guidelines (it's written everywhere that for EEA FP applicants should submit pictures, messages,etc) and they are complaining about refusal.

[wegiwegi]

According to your post you actually didn't submit pictures. I don't understand why people are not following the guidelines (it's written everywhere that for EEA FP applicants should submit pictures, messages,etc) and they are complaining about refusal.

Wrong, from gov.uk website, for a family permit outside UK

3. Documents you must provide

You must provide:

a valid passport
evidence of your relationship to your EEA family member, for example a marriage certificate, civil partnership certificate, birth certificate or proof that you’ve lived together for 2 years if unmarried
your family member’s valid passport or national identity card (or a certified copy if you can’t provide the original)
proof of your dependency if you’re dependent on your EEA family member

No mention of pictures at all

[TalitaZ]

According to your post you actually didn't submit pictures. I don't understand why people are not following the guidelines (it's written everywhere that for EEA FP applicants should submit pictures, messages,etc) and they are complaining about refusal.

Wrong, from gov.uk website, for a family permit outside UK

3. Documents you must provide

You must provide:

a valid passport
evidence of your relationship to your EEA family member, for example a marriage certificate, civil partnership certificate, birth certificate or proof that you’ve lived together for 2 years if unmarried
your family member’s valid passport or national identity card (or a certified copy if you can’t provide the original)
proof of your dependency if you’re dependent on your EEA family member

No mention of pictures at all

It does mention it in the 'Guide to Supporting Documents'

Evidence of your relationship to your sponsor and any contact between you
This could be copies of:
􀂾 your birth certificate or adoption certificate
􀂾 your marriage certificate or civil partnership certificate
􀂾 phone records
􀂾 emails or letters
􀂾 photographs
You should not submit DVDs or video cassettes

Photos are indeed not a requirement by law, but unfortunately they use it as a reason to refuse.

[Lucia17]

According to your post you actually didn't submit pictures. I don't understand why people are not following the guidelines (it's written everywhere that for EEA FP applicants should submit pictures, messages,etc) and they are complaining about refusal.

Hi dan1988uk,

I just want to make clear that we provided evidence of our relationship, but as the ECO pointed out we did not provide marriage certificate (please note notarised) and wedding pictures= so the wedding did not take place in his opinion.

Technically speaking photos are not compulsory supporting documents. They are not mentioned on the official gov website (https://www.gov.uk/family-permit/docume ... st-provide). The only place that you can find out from the official sources about the pictures is in last paragraph of the UK Border agency guide to supporting documents and even there the evidence could contain marriage certificate or pictures. It doesn't say we have to provide both.

BUT that is for the complaint department to sort out- what i want to know is whether to reapply for tourist or again for EEA FP visa.