Law and fairness – oh, really?
As we all know, law and justice should go hand in hand. And if your logic tells you that you have certain rights, you are definitely right. In all written laws in the history of mankind, the legislator has been guided primarily by the principle of justice (or by his own conception of justice). Administrative and judicial bodies should also be fair, but what happens in practice? This article aims to analyze how the Migration authorities are usually proceeding upon submission of applications for residence.
Preparation of the documents
The documents that need to be submitted to Migration authorities must be perfectly in order. The latter is generally difficult for many applicants for residence, as the Migration officials do not provide information on what the documents should be and how they must be prepared. At the same time, the relevant laws and regulations are extremely unclear to a person without legal education. The applicable laws, unfortunately, are difficult to understand even for a person who has a law degree but has not dealt extensively with immigration issues. Things are further complicated by the lack of telephone support by the immigration authorities. The Migration Directorate – Sofia and some directorates in the country have an e-mail to which the relevant inquiries can be sent, but the employees there usually respond very slow. The answers are most often merely cited legal provisions, without any specific answers. Some of the required documents have limited time validity, so it is extremely important that they are submitted within a certain period, for some even on a certain day (eg insurance). When we are involved, our lawyers will explain the specifics of all required documents.
Refusal to take the applicant’s documents
Even if your documents are perfectly in order, they may not be accepted by the desk clerk. She (she usually is a “she”) may tell you that you do not have certain rights, but the latter is due to her ignorance of the law. Usually the first thing the office workers do is refuse to accept the documents. Therefore, it is good to contact us for assistance well in advance. When we are commissioned to assist, our employee will accompany you throughout the whole procedure, also at the submission of the documents themselves.
Talk with the “director”
In case the applicants are more insistent, they may be allowed to speak with the relevant chief of staff at the counter. However, he may not understand your case and again refuse to take the documents anyway. In case our employee accompanies you in the procedure, he will take care to talk, if necessary, with the competent authority and thus protect your rights, at this stage of the proceedings.
Refusal
Even if you have the right to apply and obtain residence permit, your application is very likely to be rejected. This can be, luckily, appealed in court. Of course, if things go that far, our lawyers will defend your rights in court of law, and after the court decision, they will help to enforce it and to protect your rights.
In summary
What will you get if we are commissioned to assist:
- assistance with regard to the preparation of the documents and 100% legal compliance;
- monitoring of all deadlines for submitting the applications;
- assistance in submitting the documents;
- protection of your rights at the stage of submitting the documents;
- protection of your rights in connection with any illegal refusal of the application.
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