De Facto - Missing required documents

NerfNerder

Hi,

I am Irish and my girlfriend is from a non EU country. We have been together for three years. We applied for the de facto relationship a few months ago so as my girlfriend can stay in Ireland. As proof of our relationship we sent the following:
1. A letter explaining our relationship, how we met etc.
2. Phone bills showing calls and texts between each other over the last few years
3. Letters from friends and family verifying we are a couple
4. A copy of our lease agreement verifying we live together
5. Photographs of us together
6. Evidence of trips abroad together
7. Emails dating from three years ago to now

However we received a response to say that they require more evidence. As we live with three other people, they say our lease does not prove anything, as our pictures are not date stamped these will not count. They also need a utility bill with both our names on it. However we cannot provide this as the only bill we receive, an ESB bill comes in the name of another housemate.
Has anyone been in this situation? Or suggest any documents which we could send to prove our relationship?

Thanks in advance for your help

Marsden

Try your local TD, my girlfriend was waiting 3 years for a stamp 3(or 4) and a visit to TD sorted in in a week. Different situation I know but worth a shot.

Dandelion6

Put the ESB bill in your names? I doubt your housemate will mind.

NerfNerder

Thanks guys, I have made a move to have the bill put into both our names, but we won't have the bill in time for the date that immigration have requested it. We will give the TD route a shot, it can't hurt at this stage I reckon.

ay.Jul

Hello everybody, I need your help as I'm planning to apply to the facto couple. My boyfriend is Italian and of course I don't hold an EU passport.

NerfNerder, how long it took until you got the first answer from Migration?? Did you have any new about it? Did the bill under your names was helpful?

I'm pretty nervious as I will apply for this after my holidays, so it will be the 30th of September and I have a VISA (Stamp 2) Until November. Do you think I will be ok with the time?

Any suggestion will be much appreciated as I'm very scared of this situation.

NerfNerder

ay.Jul wrote: »

Hello everybody, I need your help as I'm planning to apply to the facto couple. My boyfriend is Italian and of course I don't hold an EU passport.

NerfNerder, how long it took until you got the first answer from Migration?? Did you have any new about it? Did the bill under your names was helpful?

I'm pretty nervious as I will apply for this after my holidays, so it will be the 30th of September and I have a VISA (Stamp 2) Until November. Do you think I will be ok with the time?

Any suggestion will be much appreciated as I'm very scared of this situation.

Hi,

When we sent our first application in, about a week later we received a letter saying that immigration had received our application and we had been assigned a case number. They advised that it would be 6-12 months before our case would be processed. Then roughly five months later we received the letter asking for more information, which prompted me to start this thread. Once we had sent additional details we received confirmation that our application had been approved about three weeks later.

Basically you need to send as many details as possible. We did not have the ESB bills in our names, or the lease agreement in just both our names as we live with other people. So instead we sent a really detailed account of our living arrangements and how we got to this point. We took screen prints of our facebook pages showing messages between each other over the last three years. Even though we don't have a shared bank account we sent statements from our separate accounts showing transfers of money between them. We sent both our phone bills highlighting calls between our numbers. We had Christmas cards written to both of us, thank you cards, and birthday cards from my family to hers. We were also able to include the date stamp on the photo's by sending them in electronic format as most cameras add a date stamp even if it doesn't show on printed photo's.

It's frustrating because there is no exact guideline for what to send it literally is just anything you have that builds the picture of your relationship. In our experience more is better. If you have the shared bills, lease I think it is a bit easier but if not it's not impossible.

I'd advise to send your application as soon as possible. Good luck