Waiting times for EU residence documents

The request was partially successful.

Dear Home Office,

I would be grateful if you could tell me the current average waiting times for:

1. EU residence cards
2. EU residence certificates
3. EU permanent residence cards
4. EU permanent residence certificates

If the precise data is not available I would be grateful for whatever management information you currently hold on waiting times for EU residence documents.

Yours faithfully,

Colin Yeo

FOI Requests, Home Office

Thank you for contacting the Home Office FOI Requests mailbox.

The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2000 provides public access to
recorded information held by the department.

If you have submitted a valid FoI request, we will acknowledge your
request within 48 hours, and aim to provide the information requested
within 20 working days as specified under the FoI Act

PLEASE NOTE

If you have a general immigration enquiry, or require an update on a
specific case, you should contact UKVI directly, contact information can
be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... and
[1]https://www.gov.uk/visas-immigration

General enquiries should be directed to
[2][email address]  

 

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/visas-immigration
2. mailto:[email address]

FOI Requests, Home Office

Mr. Yeo,

Thank you for contacting the Home Office with your request.

This has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 38691). We will aim to send you a full response by 23/03/2016 which is twenty working days from the date we received your request.

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

P. Zebedee
FOI Requests
Home Office

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CCT FOI, Home Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Colin Yeo,

 

Please see attached a response to your FOI request of 23 February.

 

Many thanks

CCT FOI Team

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Home Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Waiting times for EU residence documents'.

I am grateful for release of the waiting times for the previous year, 2015. However, I am disappointed that release of up to date statistics has been refused. I wish to challenge that decision.

Firstly, I cannot see how it can rationally be said that release of waiting times for residence documents can possibly "build a picture" or similar of as yet unreleased immigration statistics. I am not requesting the numbers of applications made, only the waiting times for applications.

Secondly, there is an obvious and strong public interest in applicants knowing what the waiting times are or have recently been roughly at the time the applicant will apply so that they can plan for the delay and the retention of their passport during that time.

Thirdly, up to date waiting time information is made available for other types of immigration application for non EEA nationals here: https://www.gov.uk/visa-processing-times. This suggests that there is no real public interest argument in withholding that type of information on the grounds it might, with other FOI releases, give some sort of advance disclosure of unpublished immigration statistics. It also raises the issue of differential treatment of EEA nationals. Why is it that non EEA nationals can access information about the waiting times for different categories of visa but EEA nationals and their families cannot? This kind of unequal treatment is something that is contrary to EU law.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...

Yours faithfully,

Colin Yeo

FOI Requests, Home Office

Thank you for contacting the Home Office FOI Requests mailbox.

The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2000 provides public access to
recorded information held by the department.

If you have submitted a valid FoI request, we will acknowledge your
request within 48 hours, and aim to provide the information requested
within 20 working days as specified under the FoI Act

PLEASE NOTE

If you have a general immigration enquiry, or require an update on a
specific case, you should contact UKVI directly, contact information can
be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... and
[1]https://www.gov.uk/visas-immigration

General enquiries should be directed to
[2][email address]  

 

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/visas-immigration
2. mailto:[email address]

FOI Requests, Home Office

Mr. Yeo,

Thank you for contacting the Home Office with your request.

This Internal Review has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 38691). We will aim to send you a full response by 25/04/2016 which is twenty working days from the date we received your request.

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

P. Zebedee
FOI Requests
Home Office

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FOI Responses, Home Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Yeo,

 

Please see the attached outcome of the internal review into FOI request
38691.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

L. Picton

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.