# EEA family permit surinder singh route help with application please



## charlie custard (Mar 7, 2014)

Hi 
My fiancee and Iwould like to give an outline of our plans to obtain a family permit through the Surinder Singh route. We are nervous, it is really important to us, so if you have any advice or opinions please let us know. I am from the UK, and he is Australian. We have been in a relationship for 4 ½ years but as we have been travelling we don’t have much evidence of living together (mostly in tents, vans and caravans!). 

We moved to Ireland in September 2013, and it took me until January 2014 to find work. During that time I volunteered with a local ecology centre, joined a community gardening course and done a first aid course, and joined the library (I am hoping this will help with proving Ireland is the centre of life!). I started working beginning of January and will continue working up until mid may when we put in our application, it is only a Saturday job 8 hours a week, I had a full time job for three weeks in January but didn’t hit targets and got let go. I then started doing some more voluntary work all through February which has led me to doing a 15-20 paid hours a week. So we are worried that maybe I haven’t been working enough, of course it’s hard to tell with no guidelines.

We are getting married in April and making the application in May. We have plenty of evidence of our relationship over the last 4 years to prove it is not a marriage of convenience. We have joint bank accounts in Australia and Ireland, and proof of travelling together since we met.

The new rule regarding making the member state ‘centre of life’ worries us. We feel like it is our home, we were back in England for 4 months over the summer visiting friends and family after we had spent the last 18 months in Australia and also 8 months in India. But if they were to say Ireland were not the centre of our life where else would be? Is it worth explaining this?

Have I been successfully exercising treaty rights in Ireland? Does it matter that it took me longer than three months to find work?

We are asking some friends, family and employers in Australia to write witness statements of our relationship, would these be ok as emails or should they be letters? If they are letters do they need to be notarised?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Love Charlie Custard
:eek2:


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

Expect to live in Ireland for at least a year in order to demonstrate that you have moved the centre of your life there.

Personal declarations from friends and family are subjective and carry little if any weight.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Also just a Saturday job is unlikely to be considered as exercising economic treaty rights. You should really be earning at least the minimum wage for a 40-hour week. At minimum wage of 8.65 euro/hour, you should be earning around 346 euro/week gross.


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## charlie custard (Mar 7, 2014)

Joppa said:


> Also just a Saturday job is unlikely to be considered as exercising economic treaty rights. You should really be earning at least the minimum wage for a 40-hour week. At minimum wage of 8.65 euro/hour, you should be earning around 346 euro/week gross.


I have had several jobs since being in Ireland. At the moment, I work Saturday-day, and 3-4 shifts a week at another job. Before that I was full time for a little while. 

It was my understanding that there was no mention/requirement for amount of hours worked or money earned (ie financial) ?

People are now mentioning that 1 year is the required time to prove the centre of our life is here, is this just speculation at this point?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

No, there is guidance document disclosed under Freedom of Information and it gives examples of people only living and working for 6 months as a reason for rejection. 1 year or any time scale isn't mentioned, but Home office interprets the new rule to mean you are unlikely to meet the requirement in much less than a year.
As for amount earned, while no figure is mentioned, you should really be economically self-sufficient through your work or self-employment in Ireland. The rule has always stated the job cannot be casual or transitory.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

Do you belong to a church, book club, football club, have you bought a property, do you have a career, belong to the neighbourhood watch? You have to prove that your life is entrenched there. So far in the recent past you've lived in India for 8 months and Australia for 18. Do you really think that barely 6 months in Ireland demonstrates transferring the centre of your life there when you spent more time holidaying in other countries?


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## charlie custard (Mar 7, 2014)

I think because we were travelling ie. not more than a week or two in the same place in Austalia and India and in Ireland we have spent the last 6 months in the same city same house, this to us feels settled and what we would call home but getting immigration to understand that would be tough I can imagine. In terms of centre of life we do classes, go to gym, volunterr in community projects, join the library.
The job is not casual or transitory it is a permanent job and as a couple we are self sufficient as my fiancee works full time.
Thanks for your info it is all slightly depressing though!!
Do you know how easy it would be to get my fiancee a family permit to stay in Ireland once his current visa runs out ?
Do we need to exercize treaty rights in another country or can we just apply for one?
your help is reallt appreciated it is such a confusing subjectanda:


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

You don't know until you apply how easy or not it is going to be to get EEA family permit. One thing is certain. With the recent revision, Home Office is going to scrutinise every application thoroughly to ensure it meets all the requirements. As for your job being permanent, working once a year for an annual event may also be called permanent but surely it's stretching the definition too far. Home Office is looking for a steady, regular job in a way such a description is normally understood. The way the regulation is phrased opens itself to a wide degree of discretion by ECO, who can decide on the balance of probabilities and in their own absolute judgment.
You can apply in Ireland.


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## fergie (Oct 4, 2010)

If you got a job with a legal employer, and paid tax and insurance, and had wage slips to prove you had done this for over six months, that would show you are exercising treaty rights. If your Australian boyfriend also got a job and did the same, it would help to enforce the fact you both had intentions of working, and show you were settled in Ireland.
Then you could apply for a visa, after a year in Ireland, to show you really intend to work, and not lead a gypsy lifestyle, by showing you are settled, in a static proper home,and part of the community.
It is very exciting when you are young to travel and see the world, but if you collect a non UK or EEU national boyfriend or girlfriend,on route , then you have problems, no matter how much you love them. If your Australian boyfriend had direct ancestral rights, such as a British born parents, it might be easier.


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