Habitual Residency appeal -

B

bluebug33

Registered User
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Hi

My friend's boyfriend is an EU citizen and has been living in Ireland for 1.5 years. He was employed for the first 6 months, and has been unemployed since. He was collecting Jobseeker's Benefit but his recent application for Jobseeker's Allowence was refused on the basis that he does not have 'habitual residence' in Ireland.

The problem is that they have recently had a child together (not married), are living together (for the last 6 months) and plan to stay in Ireland. They plan to appeal the 'habitual residencey' decision but apparently he 'failed' on all grounds so I don't know what their chances are.

He has no family in his home country, no property there etc and they are renting here in Ireland. He did work in Ireland but has struggled to find a job in the last year. Her job has been reduced to part-time, so they are struggling to pay rent and bills, and he has only received a little money from the Community Welfare Officer (I doubt they will continue to give him money based on this http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Publicatio...onotsatisfytheHabitualResidenceCondition.aspx ).

Is there anything extra they can do to show that he is committed to staying in Ireland to look after his family? The fact that he is a father doesn't seem to carry much weight. If his appeal is refused, I don't know what they will do. Any advice or suggestions on how to help? Would getting married make a difference?

thanks.
 
To be fair to SW, someone who's only been in the country for 18 months and only worked for 6 of those could hardly be regarded as a habitual resident.

In the eyes of SW, he may have an Irish child, but he's not financially supporting it.
 
csirl said:
To be fair to SW, someone who's only been in the country for 18 months and only worked for 6 of those could hardly be regarded as a habitual resident.

In the eyes of SW, he may have an Irish child, but he's not financially supporting it.
Click to expand...

To be fair, he has been supporting the child (and his girlfriend) with his Jobseeker's benefit payments (he lives with partner and child), and is fully committed to staying in Ireland to be a father to the child. He would prefer to be employed but has found it impossible to even get a job interview.

Does anyone have any experience of appealing a habitual residency ruling or how to strengthen his case? I would appreciate some practical advice.
thanks
 
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