Passport with residence permit stolen before holidays

[romainriou]

Hello everyone,

I am French and my wife is Russian. We live in London and she has a residence permit (non EEA spouse of EEA member) that was stamped in her passport.
Her passport was stolen last week-end.
And we were supposed to fly to France on the 24th December. She usually travels without a Schengen visa, the residence permit is enough.

We are trying to check if she can get some kind of emergency travel document. But so far we have been told different stories from the Russian embassy, the Home Office and Heathrow Airport.
I would appeciate any help/advice/previous experience on this.

Does my wife need a new russian passport or can the home office issue something directly for her? (that will be accepted in France)
(I am asking because apparently the Russian embassy does not provide any emergency document)

Thank you in advance for your help.
Romain

[ca.funke]

Salut Romain,

all I can think of is my usual Article 5, Section 4 of 2004/38/EC:

Where a Union citizen, or a family member who is not a national of a Member State, does not have the necessary travel documents or, if required, the necessary visas, the Member State concerned shall, before turning them back, give such persons every reasonable opportunity to obtain the necessary documents or have them brought to them within a reasonable period of time or to corroborate or prove by other means that they are covered by the right of free movement and residence.

Lorsqu'un citoyen de l'Union ou un membre de la famille qui n'a pas la nationalité d'un État membre ne dispose pas du document de voyage requis ou, le cas échéant, du visa nécessaire, l'État membre concerné accorde à ces personnes tous les moyens raisonnables afin de leur permettre d'obtenir ou de se procurer, dans un délai raisonnable, les documents requis ou de faire confirmer ou prouver par d'autres moyens leur qualité de bénéficiaires du droit de circuler et de séjourner librement, avant de procéder au refoulement.

The question is thus what is accepted within "corroborate or prove by other means".

Maybe something like a birth certificate, driving license, and whatever else you can think of may help.

But I guess the airline won´t take you, as probably their terms determine that you have to appear with a passport.

Maybe you can try your luck by boarding through checking-in online... However, you will probably still have to show boarding-pass and ID at the gate, so you might still be stopped at that point...

Bonne chance!