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and thank you in advance to anyone who responds to this post.

I applied in November 2015 from within the UK for an EEA Family Residence Card to join my Austrian partner here in London. However, this got refused last week, and I have until this Wednesday to decide whether to appeal the decision or not. (I was late getting my paperwork back from my lawyer, and even getting the news of the refusal.)

My lawyer (whom I've since let go of) unfortunately misguided me throughout my application, so I was under the assumption that I would definitely get it, as I felt we had proven sufficiently that my partner and I are in a durable relationship, and he assured me that we had.

However, since unfortunately we were living together in South Africa, we have very little official documentation to prove that we were co-habiting during our time there. It's a third world country that doesn't have the same thorough legal status as here in the UK. To compensate, we added Facebook conversation logs (filtering through over 10 000 messages!) and a plethora of photographs of us together. This was unfortunately not sufficient, which I can understand.

So my questions are these: 1) Do I have enough grounds to appeal their decision simply because I feel their decision is wrong? Do they need to have broken some sort of law for me to be allowed to appeal? 2) Am I allowed to submit new evidence in the appeal to attempt to counter their points of refusal? 3) Would it be better for me to fly home and to reapply from there instead of appealing while I am still here in the UK? (Even though they are allowed to send me home whenever they want)

Any help, at all, would be appreciated immeasurably. I understand that the time frame is very tight, but I'm hoping someone can lead me in the right direction. Thank you in advance.

bella3579
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    Why did they refuse your application? What did they say about appeals? Can you scan the letter and post it (black out the identifying information, of course)? – phoog May 16 '16 at 17:39
  • (1) "You have not provided sufficient documentation to suggest you are in a durable relationship. You have provided evidence that you reside at the same address as your sponsor this is in the form of a photocopied tenancy agreement dated xx/xx/xxx, you have also provided a photocopied lease document from _______ Properties dated xx/xx/xxxx. Other documents supplied are photocopied sky and eon bills and a job centre plus document and some bank statements. It is noted that all of these documents apart from a joint eon... – bella3579 May 17 '16 at 07:47
  • (2) document are all in your sponsors name and nothing has been provided to show you live at the same premises as your sponsor apart from the tenancy agreement. " – bella3579 May 17 '16 at 07:47
  • However, they've said that I have the right of appeal, and I'm not sure why they would allow that if their initial decision was justified? – bella3579 May 17 '16 at 07:48
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    Your right of appeal has nothing to do with the merits of your application. Did they mention anything about allowable grounds for the appeal? – phoog May 17 '16 at 07:59
  • Not really. It says: "You are entitled to appeal against this decision under regulation 26 of the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006. A notice of appeal is enclosed which explains what to do and advice from the Legal Services Commission on how to get help." – bella3579 May 17 '16 at 08:28

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