EEA FP prove genuine marriage, married since 14/09/12

[Gaelle]

Hi there,

I am French living and working in England for 3 and half years, my husband is Turkish living in Turkey, we are planning to apply for the EEA Family Permit as soon as possible so he can join me to live here.

I red many things about the EEA Family Permit but still have a few questions:

I went on holiday to Turkey from March 23rd to March 30th this year, I met my husband on March 28th, I then came back to see him in Turkey from May 3rd to May 10th, from June 29th to July 7th and from September 8th to September 21st, we got married on September 14th .

I am worried the UKBA would think this is a marriage of convenience as it says on their website:

"When a marriage / civil partnership of convenience is suspected, the burden of proof is high and rests with the ECO. However, in these cases the ECO is entitled to interview the applicant. Factors to consider include:
an adverse immigration history;
doubts about the validity of documentation;
application follows soon after the marriage / civil partnership;
no previous evidence of the relationship."
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... /#header10

What do they mean by “application follows soon after the marriage”?
Is there a minimum or recommended delay after the wedding to apply for this permit?

Also my husband was refused a working visa to Germany 1 or 2 years ago, do you think they could refuse the EEA FP for those 2 reasons?

As I want to prove this is a genuine wedding this are the documents I am thinking to provide:

* Copy of my passport with the stamps from my visits in Turkey

* Pictures

*Telephone bills, but the thing is that I almost never called him directly, I used a prepaid card and also a special code from my mobile phone so his phone number does not appears on the bill, I also send him text messages from time to time but not that many as it’s quite expensive. Do you think this could be a problem?

*MSN messenger history: As we meet everyday on MSN I taught it could be a good support, but I am wondering if I have to print all the pages of conversations as there are so many and also there are private things I would not like to share... What is your advice?

*I think I have seen somewhere that we could provide text messages, but how? Are there any ways to print texts from a mobile phone?

*As we got married in Turkey, we will provide our Turkish wedding certificate, but I was thinking to add our French wedding certificate with the English translation:
Because I wanted our wedding to be recognised in France we had go different times to the French consulate in Ankara. The first time was to apply for a “certificat de capacité à marriage” this is a document that says we are able to get married. We had an interview there as the Lady was saying that we met just 3 months ago and it was too soon to get married, she suspected my husband wanted to marry me just for a visa... after almost 2 hours of trying to convince her, she finally approved.
So I wanted to add a letter explaining all of that along with the French wedding certificate to prove that authorities in France already approved our wedding as genuine.
Do you think it could help?
Also, does the Turkish wedding certificate has to be translated too?

Do you think there are any other documents I can provide to prove this is not a marriage of convenience? We don’t have any emails or letter as we speak every evening on MSN.

Thank you so much in advance for reading all that and for your responses.

Gaelle.

P. S: I discovered this forum 3 days ago and learnt so many useful things, thanks everyone

[smalldog]

Hi, with such a quick marriage I'm sure that they'll suspect a marriage of convenience. Just by reading your story I can't imagine how two people can get married after only 3 weeks actually together. You'll have to provide lots of evidence that demonstrates your relationship is real. I think it's important to include a clear account of how you met and how you decided to get married. Your MSN message history seems to be the most valuable piece of evidence so if I were you I would print the whole thing. The fact that the French embassy had serious doubts about your marriage probably isn't something you want to mention.

Be prepared to be refused and have to appeal.

[Egyptian lover]

Hi there,

I am French living and working in England for 3 and half years, my husband is Turkish living in Turkey, we are planning to apply for the EEA Family Permit as soon as possible so he can join me to live here.

I red many things about the EEA Family Permit but still have a few questions:

I went on holiday to Turkey from March 23rd to March 30th this year, I met my husband on March 28th, I then came back to see him in Turkey from May 3rd to May 10th, from June 29th to July 7th and from September 8th to September 21st, we got married on September 14th .

I am worried the UKBA would think this is a marriage of convenience as it says on their website:

"When a marriage / civil partnership of convenience is suspected, the burden of proof is high and rests with the ECO. However, in these cases the ECO is entitled to interview the applicant. Factors to consider include:
an adverse immigration history;
doubts about the validity of documentation;
application follows soon after the marriage / civil partnership;
no previous evidence of the relationship."
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... /#header10

What do they mean by “application follows soon after the marriage”?
Is there a minimum or recommended delay after the wedding to apply for this permit?

Also my husband was refused a working visa to Germany 1 or 2 years ago, do you think they could refuse the EEA FP for those 2 reasons?

As I want to prove this is a genuine wedding this are the documents I am thinking to provide:

* Copy of my passport with the stamps from my visits in Turkey

* Pictures

*Telephone bills, but the thing is that I almost never called him directly, I used a prepaid card and also a special code from my mobile phone so his phone number does not appears on the bill, I also send him text messages from time to time but not that many as it’s quite expensive. Do you think this could be a problem?

*MSN messenger history: As we meet everyday on MSN I taught it could be a good support, but I am wondering if I have to print all the pages of conversations as there are so many and also there are private things I would not like to share... What is your advice?

*I think I have seen somewhere that we could provide text messages, but how? Are there any ways to print texts from a mobile phone?

*As we got married in Turkey, we will provide our Turkish wedding certificate, but I was thinking to add our French wedding certificate with the English translation:
Because I wanted our wedding to be recognised in France we had go different times to the French consulate in Ankara. The first time was to apply for a “certificat de capacité à marriage” this is a document that says we are able to get married. We had an interview there as the Lady was saying that we met just 3 months ago and it was too soon to get married, she suspected my husband wanted to marry me just for a visa... after almost 2 hours of trying to convince her, she finally approved.
So I wanted to add a letter explaining all of that along with the French wedding certificate to prove that authorities in France already approved our wedding as genuine.
Do you think it could help?
Also, does the Turkish wedding certificate has to be translated too?

Do you think there are any other documents I can provide to prove this is not a marriage of convenience? We don’t have any emails or letter as we speak every evening on MSN.

Thank you so much in advance for reading all that and for your responses.

Gaelle.

P. S: I discovered this forum 3 days ago and learnt so many useful things, thanks everyone

hi..

you met in march and got married on September which almost 6 month not 3 weeks!! have you ever been to turkey before that?

you dont have to worry its marriage of convenience just send every peace of evidence you been in contact and ( whats private and dont want to share it just simply delete it).

I think hes is Muslim and if so he cannot actually live and that with a gf and you know without marriage!!

you never know how lucky you can be just send all documents about you flat here.bank statement,pay slips that you are stable here and can support him.

Take it easy

[Gaelle]

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for your quick responses

Smalldog, I understand your point of view, and really thanks again for sharing, as Egyptian Lover said, my husband is Muslim, and for him and his family it’s really important to be married before living together. Also, we do not envisage me going to join him to live in Turkey as I don’t speak Turkish at all and our live there would have been very difficult, he speaks good English and I think he could find a job with not too many difficulties in England.
We are so much in love and everyday spend without each other is so hard... That is another reason why we decided to get married “quickly” as being employed full time, I can not take more holiday than I have and it’s quite expensive to go there every 2 months…
Do you think if I write a letter explaining that it could be in our favor?

Also I understand what you said here:” The fact that the French embassy had serious doubts about your marriage probably isn't something you want to mention.”
Maybe I can just join my French wedding certificate saying that our wedding was recognized by France without explaining all the details?

What do you mean Egyptian Lover when you say:“you never know how lucky you can be just send all documents about you flat here.bank statement,pay slips that you are stable here and can support him”.
I will join payslip and a signed letter on headed paper from my employer confirming my permanent position and my salary. I was unsure about the tenancy agreement for my flat as this is a big flat but I live with a flatmate, (we have 2 bedrooms and a living room), do you really think that could help?

Thanks again so much guys, your help is precious

[jumpingzombie]

This is quite a similar case with mine.
I'm a non-EEA national having the resident card as a family member of an EEA citizen living in the UK since February 2008.

I visited to the UK and I met my husband on the 1st of December in 2008. I traveled back to the UK to see him around the Christmas time that was actually in the same month, and stayed with him about a week.
After that, we took a trip to his country Poland in January, then Latvia spending for some days in February 2009, I visited to see him in the UK again in March/April 2009, spending the time for a couple of weeks, and he visited to Norway to see me in June 2009, staying there for a couple of days. We started collecting evidences like flight tickets, gig tickets heading together, confirmation by hotels we stayed together etc since the beginning of our relationship, to be ready for the UKBA.

We entered into marriage on the 23rd of July in 2009.
I applied for the EEA FP about the end of October 2009, and received in the middle of November, then joined to him in the UK on the 1st of December 2009.

As the OP's case, I was afraid that UKBA would suspect about our marriage because of the duration on our relationship before getting married, and the application just after 3 months since our marriage, besides my adverse immigration histories(twice).

I guess I submitted documents more than enough, especially to focus how to prove our relationship.
The link below is what documents I submitted for the EEA FP...
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... ht=#317532

*MSN messenger history: As we meet everyday on MSN I taught it could be a good support, but I am wondering if I have to print all the pages of conversations as there are so many and also there are private things I would not like to share... What is your advice?

You don't have to print out every single page as it will be a lot of works, making the application heavier,wasting ink
What I did is choosing lines that showed a date and the ones we didn't mind disclosing to any UKBA officers to print out.

*I think I have seen somewhere that we could provide text messages, but how? Are there any ways to print texts from a mobile phone?

Some mobile phones may have a function to print out text messages from a device, but don't your mobile bills show what numbers you've made a call/sent a text message to?
I just proved for I and my husband's mobile numbers, then enclosed the bills in the application.

*As we got married in Turkey, we will provide our Turkish wedding certificate, but I was thinking to add our French wedding certificate with the English translation:
Because I wanted our wedding to be recognised in France we had go different times to the French consulate in Ankara. The first time was to apply for a “certificat de capacité à marriage” this is a document that says we are able to get married. We had an interview there as the Lady was saying that we met just 3 months ago and it was too soon to get married, she suspected my husband wanted to marry me just for a visa... after almost 2 hours of trying to convince her, she finally approved.
So I wanted to add a letter explaining all of that along with the French wedding certificate to prove that authorities in France already approved our wedding as genuine.
Do you think it could help?
Also, does the Turkish wedding certificate has to be translated too?

I think one marriage certificate is enough to submit, as long as it's translated into English. Somehow the British embassy in Oslo that I applied for the EEA FP preferred receiving a marriage certificate issued in one of the EEA countries, so I submitted the one provided by Poland that my husband is from, although we got married in my country.

Just do prepare well, as long as your marriage is genuine

[Gaelle]

Thank you so much for your response jumpingzombie

My husband had his appointment yesterday at Worldbridge, but when he gave them the Lady told him that we put the wrong date on the application form, instead of writing 9 November 2012, he wrote 9 September 2012, but she still took it and now the status is: On way to WorldBridge HUB.

Do you think they can refuse the permit for that? Or maybe they would just call my husband for an explanation?

I am really stressed now, as if they refuse for that we would have to do it all over again and it would take much time to gather all the documents again, as far as I know, when they refuse they don't give back the documents, am I wrong?

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

I am really stressed now, as if they refuse for that we would have to do it all over again and it would take much time to gather all the documents again, as far as I know, when they refuse they don't give back the documents, am I wrong?

If they keep them, then you can just refer to them in any later application.

Also note that the only documents you need to provide are:
(1) a non-EU passport
(2) a copy of the EU passport or ID card
(3) the marriage certificate
(4) some proof that the Eu citizen is working in the UK (if they are already in the UK for more than 3 months)

[Gaelle]

Thanks Guru for your quick response

But do you think they can refuse for that?

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

For putting the wrong application date?

You are funny!

They can refuse it only for one of three reasons: He is a threat to national security, a threat to big public policy, or a threat to public health.

They can not refuse the visa because he accidentally wrote the wrong application date!

[Gaelle]

Sorry if this question sounds stupid... but I don't know that much about all the rules and processes and I get so stressed about that permit.

Thank you again so much Guru, I am really glad that there are people like you who knows and take the time to help

I'm feeling relieved now
Have a nice day!

I'll update as soon as we have a response.

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

You have a nice day too. Relax and enjoy the day. Breath in the lovely ocean air!

[Gaelle]

Today my husband received a phone call from the consulate asking him to provide our family register. He will go Friday to Istanbul to give them, this is not an interview as they said he could send it.

I aim to think this is a good new as they would not ask for a document if they wanted to refuse the permit, am I wrong?

But I am surprised about this request as we provided both Turkish and French wedding certificates translated in English and they do not mention it in the supporting document guidance...

Does people generally provide it with the supporting documents?

Any idea about why they want it?

[aledeniz]

Today my husband received a phone call from the consulate asking him to provide our family register. ... Does people generally provide it with the supporting documents?
...
Any idea about why they want it?

With "wedding register" do you mean they asked you to produce the "Livret de famille international" pursuant the CIEC Convention signed in Paris the 12th September 1974?
I've married a Turkish lady, and that red book (someone may probably call it claret, or bordeaux) was pretty much the only wedding related paperwork they requested.

Incidentally France has signed that Convention, but according to the official CIEC website, they never ratified it (#15 in http://www.ciec1.org/SignatRatifConv.pdf), and the UK has neither signed neither obviously ratified it, but then, those are the ways of the bureaucracies.

[Gaelle]

Thanks aledeniz

Yes that's the "livret de famille international"!

Did you not provided your wedding certificate for your wife's visa?

[Gaelle]

EEA family permit approved

Thanks to everybody for your precious help!

[aledeniz]

Did you not provided your wedding certificate for your wife's visa?

Not that I remember, I'm afraid

[aledeniz]

EEA family permit approved

That's great!

[Gaelle]

Thanks

Did you not provided your wedding certificate for your wife's visa?

Not that I remember, I'm afraid

That's weird !