EEA2 and British Home Office despair!

Today I posted a letter to the local MP Desmond Swayne. Why you ask? Well, let me tell you a story!

Some of you will remember that this (wonderful) blog started with my husband's UK residence application in 2006. Then late last year hubby's passport was stolen by 4 long fingered individuals. Oh the drama that pursued!

When a passport is lost or stolen with an EEA2 permit it means that the passport holder has to start the whole EEA2 application from scratch again, as in blank canvas start all over again. When the Home Office is in complete disarray (as the British one is because they keep reshuffling application centers) - it means that they keep your passport for a very very long time.

If you have a holiday planned within the next 12 months it is vexing because you might have to cancel due to not having a passport. If somebody in your family is ill or dying it means that you have to wait a week or two or three to get your passport back and then your application will be put in the back of the queue again. If you are a speaker (like my husband) and need to run international seminars to boost your business income in this time of global financial crisis - it means stress, stress and more stress.

And to put the cherry on top. Did you know that in the UK - your passport is your primary proof of identity. This means that if you approach the bank for a personal or business overdraft, they will not be able to help you because you don't have a passport as proof of identity and residence permit!

Back to the British Home Office. During the first 6 months of the Home Office sitting with your application including your passport they will not correspond with you. As in not help you on the phone, not reply to letters or email - nada, nix - don't want to hear your story!

In fact it's so bad that even a top notch immigration lawyer has informed us that they can't get through to chase up the EEA2 application processing time.

There is a clause that allows one to take action against the Home Office if they take longer than 6 months to process but I doubt that will be of much value. Who wants to take legal action with today's cost anyway! So the frustration is mounting for us as hubby wants to plan his seminar but can not settle on dates because (you guessed it) he doesn't have a passport!

Apparently we are not the only ones who are getting vexed about this situation. SOLVIT is apparently being overrun with annoyed EEA2 applicants who have waited over 6 months for the return of their passports.

Yesterday Hubby pulled out his magic stick (otherwise referred to as the pen) and wrote another letter to the Home Office but this time we copied it to our local MP. I have no idea if our local MP will even bother to get involved in this case although I'm sure that if we stopped paying our council tax there would be a quick response from the local council.

It reminds me a little of that time in South Africa when I was refused a new Identity book on the basis that I had "too many names". After spending many hours waiting in a very smelly office surrounded by various individuals giving me the hairy eyeball - I was interrogated as to this matter of so many names. In a very English polite way I attempted to explain the reason but nobody seamed to understand English and I don't speak Zulu.

It all got too much for me. I leaned over the counter grabbed the piece of paper and said :"This is my father (pointing to my maiden name), this is the man who left me (pointing to my ex's name) and this is my husband(pointing at my wide-eyed husband who had never seen me lose my temper before)!".

The officer replied :"Oh why didn't you say so".

As it turned out nobody in Home Affairs understood the term "maiden name". Talk about language barrier.