The mission is possible, but only after the professional intervention of the team of lawyer Hristo Vasilev from Posolstvo.eu!
The problem in short
or how an Indian fairy-tale turned into a court saga in Bulgaria…
An Indian guy meets Bulgarian girl and after years of friendship, they fall in love. That’s how their fairy-tale begins. The two decide to get married in Bulgaria, as the mother of the Bulgarian woman is afraid of traveling by plane and her presence is of great importance for the future bride. The newlyweds make their plans for the future and ultimately decide to live in Bulgaria. The future bride is very attached to her parents and it would be extremely difficult for her to stop seeing them frequently. After the start of the fairy-tale however, the cruel reality backfires… through the Bulgarian state authorities. Led by the desire to marry in Bulgaria, the Indian citizen applies for a type C visa.
There is a wedding, despite the Bulgarian visa “C” rejections
The Indian man attempts to get Bulgarian C (tourist) visa first – three times in a row. No luck though. This breaks the couple’s dreams and all their wedding plans. The only choice now is to marry in India. And so, the Bulgarian girl travels to Delhi. There, the two lovers still get their wedding, even though the bride’s mother is not present. After the marriage, the spouses think that everything will now go smoothly so they can relocate to Bulgaria. Wouldn’t we all think the same in their situation?
After the wedding follows the next blow – rejection for visa “D”
Unfortunately, things are not going as planned! After the marriage in India, the husband’s application for visa is rejected again. This time the rejection is for issuing a long-term visa (type D visa), which he is entitled to receive as (already) a family member of a Bulgarian citizen. The refusal is legally unmotivated, but enough to once again shatter the lovers’ plans.
Then the fairy-tale heroes turned to us for help …
The solution
Please note that refusals to issue a Type D Visa are individual administrative acts and will be enforced if they are not appealed within 14 days of receipt.
After preparing and lodging a complaint, on our part, referring to numerous European practices, the Sofia Administrative Court voids the refusal to issue a visa to the Indian citizen. With that, the family’s problems seemed resolved. But the competent authorities of the Bulgarian state decide to fight to the end in order to ban the Indian citizen – spouse of a Bulgarian citizen. The cassation complaint of the Migration Directorate itself is full of gross, prejudicial claims against our client, e.g. “the behavior of the foreign national, given his visa history, constitutes a circumvention of the visa regime“. The authority points out that “no one is preventing our client from traveling to any other EU Member State with his wife … but he is unlikely to apply for a visa in another country’s consular service, given his visa history.” . According to the administrative authority, obtaining a visa “is not a right, but an opportunity for the applicant“, and nobody is obliged to issue a visa, even though the man has submitted all required documents.
Our defense before the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Bulgaria
Following the cassation appeal of the Head of Consular Service of the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Delhi, our team has again, professionally defended the interests of the young family before the Bulgarian court. Fortunately, justice triumphs and the case is won again, this time definitively (see also https://blog.bglaw.eu/en/otkaz-visa/).
And after the final verdict?
Unfortunately, after the final decision, nothing changed automatically. So we had to again defend our client’s rights. After a series of letters and clarifications, updating the initial application documents, our client received the visa he wanted, and with it the opportunity to be with his wife.
Like all fairy-tales, this one has its happy ending too. Currently, the family is living happily in Bulgaria and is expecting their first child. It remains our satisfaction that we have helped them with our expertise to solve such a difficult case. Difficult, not so much because of its legal nature, but mainly because of the persistence of the state administration, which obviously does not spare budget resources and administrative resources in order to “protect” the interests of the Bulgarian citizens…. in their own bizarre way!
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