Scandinavian guidelines to Surinder Singh route
https://www.facebook.com/notes/eea-visa-eu-free-movement/scandinavian-guidelines-to-ss-route/756686434381876
By Kim Pedersen Nyberg of the Danish NGO Ægteskab Uden Grænser ("Marriages Without Borders").
'If anyone is considering exercising treaty rights in any of the Scandinavian countries, here are links to the public immigration authorities in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Also links to NGOs where available.
Showing posts with label norway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label norway. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 July 2014
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Haje & Ziah
“Missed deadlines, lost marriage certificates, baffling incompetence; welcome to the Home Office.”
Haje is resident in the UK. He came here about thirteen years ago from Norway; literally fresh off the boat as he disembarked at Newcastle to start his journalism course in Liverpool. The big shiny lights, the unfeasibly short skirts and the incredible amounts of Stella consumed was something to behold.
He remembers thinking, “so this is what the big world is like”.
Haje had no intention of remaining in the UK. However plans changed and he set up his first company soon after finishing university. Fast forward the best part of a decade and Haje is now living in London; his company is a success and he’s doing pretty well too.
However, something over-shadows everything else in his life: he is in love with Ziah from USA.
Truly, properly, and very much in love. She’s hot (why not!), awesome (of course), talented (what else) and from the USA (unfortunately). They met whilst Ziah was in the UK working in visual effects - one of those industries that would have collapsed if it hadn’t been for foreign talent.
From here, it’s a pretty standard tale of boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-go-travelling-round- world, boyand- girl-move-to-South-America-for-a-year, boy-proposes-to-girl, girl-says-yes, girl-narrowly-avoidsturning- into-bridezilla and so forth.
They got married at the end of 2012, planning to return to UK. But first, they had to go through the Home Office process.
They expected it to be easy. After all, Haje is an EU citizen with a job and a lovely flat. As an EEA Citizen, the EU guarantees the right to move and reside freely anywhere within the EEA. (see Directive 2004/38/EC on the right to move and reside freely).
Being married to Haje, Ziah should be able to enter the country and get an EEA Residence card, as per Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006.
However they didn’t count on Home Office placing unnecessarily obstacles in their way.
The irony is that Ziah doesn’t need this piece of paper. In fact, on the UKBA site, they say “You do not need to obtain documents confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a family member of an EEA national”, but you “may have difficulty proving that you are lawfully resident in the UK”; i.e. it will be difficult to re-enter the UK if you go abroad, and that you “may find it difficult to obtain or change employment.” So essentially, what they’re saying is that you don’t need this piece of paper, but if you don’t have it you’re screwed.
Keen to be immigrants of the legal variety, the couple submitted their EEA2 form, which means that — by law – the Home Office has to issue the residence card within six months. Months went by and the six month deadline went and passed.
Eventually, the Home Office did get back to them, rejecting the application as the payslips they received were ‘copies’. Given the company is paperless, the originals of payslips are PDF documents, how do the Home Office expect submission of these?
More importantly: why couldn’t Home Office have contacted them? The second they opened the envelope and the payslips tumbled out, they’d have been able to spot that something wasn’t quite “official” enough for them.
In the meantime, Ziah may lose the job she has been offered – a job that would mean she starts paying income tax – because she can’t prove she is allowed to work here, even though she is! So, we start our long and arduous climb up the slippery pole that is the appeals process.
Receiving an EEA residence permit really is a formality: apparently it used to be possible to rock up at an office with a pair of passports, a marriage certificate, a couple of pay slips and a tenancy agreement, and they’d stamp the EEA residence card into your passport there and then. The whole process would take less than a day. The underpinning laws haven’t changed, but the process has morphed from taking 4-hours to 4400 hours.
To ‘prove’ the payslips and other digital documents are effectively ‘originals’, Haje was advised to purchase a rubber stamp; his lawyer said “It’s only £30, buy one. It’s the Home Office, logic does not apply.”
As they prepare to put in their appeal, Ziah realises Home Office never returned their original marriage certificate. So she sends a letter to the Home Office, asking for her marriage certificate back. In response, they received a most insidious letter from “EO2 LNC21” (as their case worker is known - god forbid they actually get the real name of the person deciding their fate) claiming to work for the UK Boarder Agency (sic) ‘application was seen and decided by myself,’ and that ‘there was no marriage certificate in your application’ The caseworker goes on to say that the ‘application did not contain a covering letter stating the contents of the application and the only record this office has that there may have been a marriage certificate included in this application is the application form.’
The absolutely incredible thing about the latter statement is that the couple included the marriage certificate and a cover letter specifying this. How can they be so sure? Because the Home Office returned their cover letter to them!
It does appear that Home Office puts up artificial hindrances in the way, even for people from the EU (and their family members), because they are trying to dissuade potential migrants from EEA countries as much as possible. Is that legal? Absolutely not. Does the Home Office care? Actions speak louder than words.
Haje finds it hard to explain exactly how powerless he feels when facing a government agency which finds it easy to flout the law. Doubly so when what ought to be a simple formality becomes an unsurpassable wall that stands between the right-here-right-now, and being able to start a life in the UK as productive members of society.
Ziah would love to work. She would love to start paying taxes. Both her and Haje would love to be a shiny example of exactly the kind of immigrants we need in this country.
Now if only the Home Office would let them.
“Missed deadlines, lost marriage certificates, baffling incompetence; welcome to the Home Office.”
Haje is resident in the UK. He came here about thirteen years ago from Norway; literally fresh off the boat as he disembarked at Newcastle to start his journalism course in Liverpool. The big shiny lights, the unfeasibly short skirts and the incredible amounts of Stella consumed was something to behold.
He remembers thinking, “so this is what the big world is like”.
Haje had no intention of remaining in the UK. However plans changed and he set up his first company soon after finishing university. Fast forward the best part of a decade and Haje is now living in London; his company is a success and he’s doing pretty well too.
However, something over-shadows everything else in his life: he is in love with Ziah from USA.
Truly, properly, and very much in love. She’s hot (why not!), awesome (of course), talented (what else) and from the USA (unfortunately). They met whilst Ziah was in the UK working in visual effects - one of those industries that would have collapsed if it hadn’t been for foreign talent.
From here, it’s a pretty standard tale of boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-go-travelling-round- world, boyand- girl-move-to-South-America-for-a-year, boy-proposes-to-girl, girl-says-yes, girl-narrowly-avoidsturning- into-bridezilla and so forth.
They got married at the end of 2012, planning to return to UK. But first, they had to go through the Home Office process.
They expected it to be easy. After all, Haje is an EU citizen with a job and a lovely flat. As an EEA Citizen, the EU guarantees the right to move and reside freely anywhere within the EEA. (see Directive 2004/38/EC on the right to move and reside freely).
Being married to Haje, Ziah should be able to enter the country and get an EEA Residence card, as per Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006.
However they didn’t count on Home Office placing unnecessarily obstacles in their way.
The irony is that Ziah doesn’t need this piece of paper. In fact, on the UKBA site, they say “You do not need to obtain documents confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a family member of an EEA national”, but you “may have difficulty proving that you are lawfully resident in the UK”; i.e. it will be difficult to re-enter the UK if you go abroad, and that you “may find it difficult to obtain or change employment.” So essentially, what they’re saying is that you don’t need this piece of paper, but if you don’t have it you’re screwed.
Keen to be immigrants of the legal variety, the couple submitted their EEA2 form, which means that — by law – the Home Office has to issue the residence card within six months. Months went by and the six month deadline went and passed.
Eventually, the Home Office did get back to them, rejecting the application as the payslips they received were ‘copies’. Given the company is paperless, the originals of payslips are PDF documents, how do the Home Office expect submission of these?
More importantly: why couldn’t Home Office have contacted them? The second they opened the envelope and the payslips tumbled out, they’d have been able to spot that something wasn’t quite “official” enough for them.
In the meantime, Ziah may lose the job she has been offered – a job that would mean she starts paying income tax – because she can’t prove she is allowed to work here, even though she is! So, we start our long and arduous climb up the slippery pole that is the appeals process.
Receiving an EEA residence permit really is a formality: apparently it used to be possible to rock up at an office with a pair of passports, a marriage certificate, a couple of pay slips and a tenancy agreement, and they’d stamp the EEA residence card into your passport there and then. The whole process would take less than a day. The underpinning laws haven’t changed, but the process has morphed from taking 4-hours to 4400 hours.
To ‘prove’ the payslips and other digital documents are effectively ‘originals’, Haje was advised to purchase a rubber stamp; his lawyer said “It’s only £30, buy one. It’s the Home Office, logic does not apply.”
As they prepare to put in their appeal, Ziah realises Home Office never returned their original marriage certificate. So she sends a letter to the Home Office, asking for her marriage certificate back. In response, they received a most insidious letter from “EO2 LNC21” (as their case worker is known - god forbid they actually get the real name of the person deciding their fate) claiming to work for the UK Boarder Agency (sic) ‘application was seen and decided by myself,’ and that ‘there was no marriage certificate in your application’ The caseworker goes on to say that the ‘application did not contain a covering letter stating the contents of the application and the only record this office has that there may have been a marriage certificate included in this application is the application form.’
The absolutely incredible thing about the latter statement is that the couple included the marriage certificate and a cover letter specifying this. How can they be so sure? Because the Home Office returned their cover letter to them!
It does appear that Home Office puts up artificial hindrances in the way, even for people from the EU (and their family members), because they are trying to dissuade potential migrants from EEA countries as much as possible. Is that legal? Absolutely not. Does the Home Office care? Actions speak louder than words.
Haje finds it hard to explain exactly how powerless he feels when facing a government agency which finds it easy to flout the law. Doubly so when what ought to be a simple formality becomes an unsurpassable wall that stands between the right-here-right-now, and being able to start a life in the UK as productive members of society.
Ziah would love to work. She would love to start paying taxes. Both her and Haje would love to be a shiny example of exactly the kind of immigrants we need in this country.
Now if only the Home Office would let them.
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Wayne and Daisy
Wayne tells his story :
'I met my the woman who is now my wife online in 2010. As soon as I saw her I knew she was my special person. I had to know everything about her.
'She was living and working in Denmark as an au pair. We soon became a couple.
'We put in for two visit visa. Disappointingly, this was turned down. She got a job in Norway - and I asked her to marry me. She said yes!
'She owns land in the Philippines, so we then decide to build a house there. She returned home for a six month while we sorted out the wedding paperwork (no mean feat!).
'We got married, and we lived together for the next six months, during which time she became pregnant. The baby is due the last week of September.
'I've now come home try to find work in Torbay - which is hard in the current economy. I don't think I will be able to meet the £18,600 income requirement, especially in the area where I live.
'But I own my own - four bedroomed - house outright. How many people can say that! I don't need a lot to live on - unlike someone with a huge rent. And I'm self employed. I contribute to the economy!
'I am a handyman, window cleaner and builder. I work hard, and so does my wife.
'My wife is college graduate midwife. She finished top of her class. She was also a sergeant major in her local reservists when she was at school. That one made me giggle as she is so small bless. Do I not hear the UK needs midwives? Well at least she can train me how to deliver our baby if we had to somewhere in Europe!
'I am thinking of taking up my European free movement rights as that would enable us to live together anywhere in Europe. We both have connections to Denmark, so could life there. But it's unfair to us to have to live away from home for so long, with so much disruption.
'I have a 13 year old daughter already, so it would mean being away from her for even longer. And the rest of my family. So unfair!
'I forgot to say - I love my wife so much. She really is so perfect and well worth all the troubles and hassles life has to chuck at us.
'Fingers crossed for our European rights now!'
Update 20/May/2013 :
An update from Wayne :
'I forgot to say that my mum has been fighting cancer. She has had many ops.
'She is constantly in and out of hospital with complications and her wish is to be able to live long enough to be able to welcome Daisy and the baby into the family.
'Fingers crossed that she lives long enough. She has been in hospital last week with yet more blood clots, this time in her lungs.
'Daisy will be so pleased to see people trying to help and that there are so many others like us now.'
Update II 20/May 2013 :
Another update from Wayne :
'Might be little good news a very nice kind lady visiting my road here today has said I can go with daisy and live in her house in the French Countryside, so if this is true then be amazing to find a nice English lady with a home there willing to help us out.
'Now the question is how to go about getting all the paperwork in France now we have a Country that looks like it is going to happen, Well in the Countryside so maybe some farm work but the lady needs some building work so how would or could I work that into me working the min 5.5 hrs a week? so happy I gave the lady a bug hug and nearly cried when she said to me.
Wayne tells his story :
'I met my the woman who is now my wife online in 2010. As soon as I saw her I knew she was my special person. I had to know everything about her.
'She was living and working in Denmark as an au pair. We soon became a couple.
'We put in for two visit visa. Disappointingly, this was turned down. She got a job in Norway - and I asked her to marry me. She said yes!
'She owns land in the Philippines, so we then decide to build a house there. She returned home for a six month while we sorted out the wedding paperwork (no mean feat!).
'We got married, and we lived together for the next six months, during which time she became pregnant. The baby is due the last week of September.
Our wedding in Mindanao. Can you believe the Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel here!
'I've now come home try to find work in Torbay - which is hard in the current economy. I don't think I will be able to meet the £18,600 income requirement, especially in the area where I live.
'But I own my own - four bedroomed - house outright. How many people can say that! I don't need a lot to live on - unlike someone with a huge rent. And I'm self employed. I contribute to the economy!
Tenerife.
'I am a handyman, window cleaner and builder. I work hard, and so does my wife.
'My wife is college graduate midwife. She finished top of her class. She was also a sergeant major in her local reservists when she was at school. That one made me giggle as she is so small bless. Do I not hear the UK needs midwives? Well at least she can train me how to deliver our baby if we had to somewhere in Europe!
First trip to the Philippines.
'I am thinking of taking up my European free movement rights as that would enable us to live together anywhere in Europe. We both have connections to Denmark, so could life there. But it's unfair to us to have to live away from home for so long, with so much disruption.
'I have a 13 year old daughter already, so it would mean being away from her for even longer. And the rest of my family. So unfair!
Daisy with Wayne's daughter.
'I forgot to say - I love my wife so much. She really is so perfect and well worth all the troubles and hassles life has to chuck at us.
'Fingers crossed for our European rights now!'
Union Jack sunglasses.
Amsterdam. Enjoying free movement rights!
An update from Wayne :
'I forgot to say that my mum has been fighting cancer. She has had many ops.
'She is constantly in and out of hospital with complications and her wish is to be able to live long enough to be able to welcome Daisy and the baby into the family.
'Fingers crossed that she lives long enough. She has been in hospital last week with yet more blood clots, this time in her lungs.
'Daisy will be so pleased to see people trying to help and that there are so many others like us now.'
Update II 20/May 2013 :
Another update from Wayne :
'Might be little good news a very nice kind lady visiting my road here today has said I can go with daisy and live in her house in the French Countryside, so if this is true then be amazing to find a nice English lady with a home there willing to help us out.
'Now the question is how to go about getting all the paperwork in France now we have a Country that looks like it is going to happen, Well in the Countryside so maybe some farm work but the lady needs some building work so how would or could I work that into me working the min 5.5 hrs a week? so happy I gave the lady a bug hug and nearly cried when she said to me.
Saturday, 20 April 2013
More on Boston, and Oslo
http://www.migranttales.net/migrant-tales-july-22-2012-what-have-we-learned-after-norways-227-and-after-the-boston-bombers/
Comment: As the manhunt for one of the two suspects continues in Boston, what should our reaction be to the two Chechen killers? This blog entry written on the first anniversary of the horrific killings in Norway by Anders Breivik could shed light on that question.
---
https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi :
I pray of the day when instead of saying "a Muslim did this" or "a Chechen did this", we just say "a criminal did this." #bostonbombing
---
Anders Breivik's hatred has been drowned out by Norwegians singing :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/27/anders-breivik-norwegians-singing
http://www.migranttales.net/migrant-tales-july-22-2012-what-have-we-learned-after-norways-227-and-after-the-boston-bombers/
Comment: As the manhunt for one of the two suspects continues in Boston, what should our reaction be to the two Chechen killers? This blog entry written on the first anniversary of the horrific killings in Norway by Anders Breivik could shed light on that question.
---
https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi :
I pray of the day when instead of saying "a Muslim did this" or "a Chechen did this", we just say "a criminal did this." #bostonbombing
---
Anders Breivik's hatred has been drowned out by Norwegians singing :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/27/anders-breivik-norwegians-singing
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)