Friday, January 21, 2011

EU Treaty Rights Update (September 2010)



Welcome to our first posting! We are starting with our update on EU Treaty Rights that was in our weekly newsletter in September 2010. We will be posting weekly updates on immigration matters and we welcome your comments! 

EU TREATY RIGHTS OBSERVATIONS 

This area of immigration law often presents complex matters. As we continue to progress and research these particular cases, many of our EU Treaty Rights clients have concerns relating to their permanent residency in the State after having been granted the EU Family Card.  What happens when there are marital difficulties and the couple separate? 

It is important to note that the Long Term Residency Section does not deal with cases whereby the applicant has 60 months of Stamp 4 granted to them by  virtue of their marriage to an EU national. The Long Term Residency Section pass any such applications to the EU Treaty Rights Section and this is where the difficulty begins! 

From our recent correspondences, the EU Treaty Rights Section currently seems to be indicating that in order to avail of Permanent Residency under Directive 2004/38EC, spouses must complete Form EU3 (the application form for permanent residency after having resided with the EU spouse for five years).  This is of course impossible when the EU spouse has left the State or has re-located to another address and will not sign the form.   

We received a range of contradictory information from the EU Treaty Rights Section and we are following this matter up with the Department on an individual client basis as well as on a more general footing and shall keep you posted on our blog as to any further developments!

Unfortunately we are also experiencing delays on part of the Department in terms of the initial Form EU 1 applications as well as reviews of negative decisions. This makes for a difficult and anxious time for many of our clients who patiently await their temporary Stamp 4 – we have sought to challenge these delays by issuing court proceedings on the basis of breach of the applicant’ s rights under the Directive 2004/38/EC and the Regulations implementing the Directive. Hopefully this won’t be necessary and our clients can avail of their right to work as soon as possible!



7 comments:

  1. I was married to eu national. I am non eu national. My 5 yrs residency is out, me nd my wife got seperated, she move to another country. i applied for eu permanent resident card form 3. i have applied now since 3 months. i havent recieve any correspondence from them. i even sent them a letter that me nd my wife got seperated. i really dont know what to do at this stage. it is very fustrating.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Austin,

    You have rights to have your application for permanent residence accepted and considered. We would suggest that you send a full copy of your application and cover letter to the EU Treaty Rights Section and indicate that you will instruct a solicitor on the matter if you do not receive a response within a ten day period. We would be happy to meet you in person to discuss the specifics of your case in more detail. You can contact us on info@brophysolicitors.ie or 01 679 7930.

    We note that we are receiving many queries similar to yours. We are therefore preparing a short article explaining the right to reside for family members who have become seperated or divorced. Keep an eye on our blog!

    Regards,

    Brophy Solicitors

    ReplyDelete
  3. Im a non Eu National and I applied the Form EU1 to the EU Treaty Rights Section because my partner is a EU National. They sent me back my passport, pictures and my partner's passport. Also they wrote in a paper: PLEASE SUBMIT ENCLOSED DOCS WITH A RELEVANT EU TREATY RIGHTS FORM.
    It's mean that I have to send again the Form EU1 or should apply to the Form EU4? I don't know what to do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Patricia,

    Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately we cannot address individual queries on our Blog. We would suggest that you contact our office by phone or email with any individual query and one of our immigration solicitors will respond to you.

    Thank you again for your interest.

    Brophy Solicitors

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello just a quick question...
    I am American but my son has EU citizenship, I am about to apply for the EU1 residency card but a couple people have told me that since my son has residency they cannot deny the mother (myself) residency is this true?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stamp 4 EUFAM which was issued in 2010. He has lived in between South African and Ireland since then.

    March 2010 - Dec 2011 - Ireland
    December 2011 - August 2013 - South Africa
    August 2013 - October 2013 - Ireland
    October 2013 - 31 August 2015 - South Africa
    2nd September 2015 - currently in Ireland

    He is now planning on living here permanently as he will be training with an Irish friend in the field of IT, going into Studies and working part time.

    I am having no joy in replies from local authorities as to which form he needs to renew his stamp 4 and what the requirements are. His stamp expires this October 2015 so we are running out of time. Can he renew his stamp 4 or would he be able to apply for permanent residence

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete