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Until recently, when the Immigration authorities took longer than 3 months to resolve residence card for family members of EU citizens applications, the permits were considered granted, by positive administrative silence. Starting from summer 2019, however, the situation has changed, and the silence of the immigration authority is considered as negative.
Applicable Residence Cards For Family Members
Before diving into the effects of administrative silence in this procedure, we consider convenient to recall the family members of an EU citizen who are covered by it:
- Spouse, or registered partner.
- Descendants younger than 21, if they are older, they must depend economically on the applicant, or be subject to legal incapacity.
- Ascendants of the applicant or of the spouse or registered partner, if they depend economically on the applicant (this dependency is difficult to accredit, and this kind of applications are usually denied by the Immigration Office)
Definition of administrative silence, and implications
The administrative silence is the automatic resolve of an application by the passing of a given amount of time. It applies to many administrative procedures, including some immigration ones. There are different kinds of administrative silences: positives, which consider the application granted upon passing of the resolving time determined by law, and negatives, which consider the applications rejected.
Previously, applications within the Residence Card for Family Members of EU Citizens procedure were benefiting from administrative silence and, after the elapse of a 3 months period, applications were considered granted. A declaration of such circumstance was requested from the immigration authority, and once the declaration was issued, it could be shown to the authorities in charge of issuing the Foreigner Identity Card (TIE).
CJUE court ruling and shift to negative silence
In summer of 2019, a Court of Justice of the European Union established that the administrative silence in the aforementioned procedure would be considered as negative. This means that, after waiting for a couple more weeks after the limit date, an appeal would need to be presented, in order to obtain a favourable resolution.
More on: Residence Cards For Family Members
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At Lexidy we can assist you through all the steps of the application for Residence Card for Family Members of EU Citizens. Get a free consultation and see what we can do for you.
