Can anyone help??

I am originally from Philly but moved over to London 3 years ago with my Irish husband. He is an Irish citizen who has always lived in London with his family. I therefore came over on an EEA Family Members Permit which was for 4 years to be renewed annually. I went to renew it the first year (which included an application for a residence permit at the instruction of the Home Office) and it was denied, we appealed and the appeal was denied. 
 
We were told that it was because my husband is unable to work, although I had been working since moving here (until this who mess started over 2 years ago...2 years which may not even go on my visa when I finally get it back. 
 
At the moment, we are waiting for our passports to be returned. We were told the appeal was denied 2 days before Christmas and still have not heard anything at all. Upon calling the Home Office and AIT, we were told to request the passports in writing (which I have done over 20 times with no response whatsoever). 
 
I just want to go back to the states to see if there's any way to fight this, but I can't even do that because they won't give us back our passports (and said that we wouldn't be able to pick them up in person either), and on top of that, I am unable to work as long as they have my passport.
 
Has anything like this happened to anyone here and does anyone have ANY advice either on getting the passports back or with the visa situation?  ANYTHING would be helpful at this point!! (I apologize if you've already read this post on the American Expats forum, but I'm trying to get all the help I can!!)

Many thanks!

The EEA family residence permit gets issued when the EU partner is exercising treaty rights, which means they have to work or study or something else of similar nature.

It sounds quite likely that your husband did not qualify under that if he's not working.  I would need to see the AIT papers to know more...

What is the reason given for not returning your passports? Your passports are the property of USA & Republic of Ireland governments so they can't hold onto them for no good reason.

Hi

It seems you have sent me an e-mail on this, so I'll answer the e-mail in depth shortly.

Victoria

Okay, I have a MASSIVE bee in my bonnet as to whether or not Irish nationals should be treated as UK nationals / non-UK nationals with ILR by virtue of their status under UK law before the EEA was even a glint in Valerie Giscard D'Estaing's eye...I think they should, and are, and therefore their spouses should be treated accordingly.

Any thoughts anyone? 


Victoria

That didn't happen by us reaching a decision without their input.  I'm less sympathetic. 

Can the Irish citizen get ILR in the UK and then sponsor her as a spouse? Or would he have to be working to get ILR?

This is the point.  Irish citizens don't need ILR - they effectively have ILR by virtue of being Irish.

Victoria

This is why I am so shocked by this whole thing as I was under the same impression, that the Irish had ILR by virtue of being Irish.

So far as the return of the passports go, I'm not sure. It has been over a month since we found out that our appeal was denied and when I call and ask about this, they simply say, "put it in writing" which I've done MANY times (and faxed) with no reply. The closest thing I've gotten to an answer was when one person told me that our passports are "on hold" whatever that means. I don't think they are doing anything else with them, they're just not returning them yet...though as the appeal is over, I don't know why they need them as I was under the assumption that when you get denied, the passports and documents are returned with the decision, but obviously in this case, it wasn't so.