What I am about to publish here is a letter that I have received from a woman who wishes her name not to be disclosed.

She has recently contacted me following her attempt to make a complaint.
She has sent this letter to many people, including the Home Office and Gordon Brown himself.

She got NO RESPONSE.

Here's her letter:

" London, 22nd June 2009.

To whom it may concern,

My name is XXX, D.O.B. XXX and on 23rd September 2008 I have applied for a Residence Card. My husband XXX, D.O.B. XXX also has applied for his registration certificate on the same date.
We are writing in order to complain and make you all aware of how distraught we both are.

When we first applied, in September, we received a letter from you where you stated:
“Residence Card or Permanent Residence Card should be resolved within six months from the date of application”.

If you had followed what you stated we should have got all our documents back in March 2009, yet this is nearly July and nothing has been done.

My husband and I needed to travel to Brazil and Italy so we wrote to you after 6 months and enquired about our passports and documents. As a reply, you returned both our passports and informed that I could travel abroad and every time I had to come back to the UK, however I would need to apply for an entry clearance that would not cost me anything. I am glad it would not cost me anything after all it is not my fault if you have not accomplished to send our documents on the stated date. But unfortunately it is pointless to go to Brazil or Italy if our case has not been concluded, since we would be going there to notify our home countries about our marriage and also to resolve some other matters where the conclusion of our case is necessary.

To make it worse I wanted to apply for a course in a University and I have had my application refused for I must hold either a valid European passport or have been granted the right to live in the UK, and right now, thanks to you, the only thing I hold is my Brazilian passport with no Residence Card whatsoever.

And finally, we know an American lady who got married to an European man, applied for her Residence Card in December 2008 and she got it in April 2009.

What kind of appalling service are you providing? Can you not see that you have stated one thing (six months) and now that is not valid anymore? What credibility do the Home Office expect to have? And last, but not least an American lady applies later and yet gets her papers before all the Brazilians that have applied long time ago, we ask you: is this a matter of prejudice against Brazilian people?

We are both very upset and feeling that our case has been treated with disregard, therefore we will be referring this letter also to the Prime Minister and to the Brazilian and Italian authorities for we believe that all this neglecting has just gone too far.

Yours sincerely,
XXXX"


In the letter sent to Gordon Brown she also added a few more words which follow:

"Dear Prime Minister Gordon Brown,

My name is XXX , I am a Brazilian national and I have been currently living in London, England since August 2007.

I am politely writing this letter in order to make you aware of the shameful service that some of your government’s departments have been providing.

Since 2005, when I first came to London, I have always followed all the rules and laws. I am proud to say that I am a very good citizen and I try my best in order to fit in this society without any culture clash. I’ve been constantly improving my language skills, I respect this country’s traditions, and I have learnt how to love living in England.

However, the Home Office has really disappointed me and has caused me so much trouble that I have decided to contact you, and speak not only for myself but for all of those who are on the Home Office’s hands waiting for them to conclude one single job so we can finally live our lives properly.

I am one of the many foreigners that are being held in a queue for a Residence Card. I have applied for it as I am married to an Italian national who lives here in London. My application dates from 23rd September 2008 and the Home Office had stated that it would take up to SIX MONTHS from the application date for our case to be resolved. Tomorrow it will be NINE MONTHS since we have applied and now I believe it is time something happened.

For this reason I am sending to you the letter of complaint that I am posting to the Home Office, so you can have a better idea of my situation: (Content of her letter to the Home Office)

Prime Minister, I kindly ask you to urge the Home Office to accomplish to what they have previously stated themselves. People’s lives depend on their decision and it is just not right to indefinitely keep us all in this ridiculous queue, to have our rights denied and so on, when others get their Residence Cards after waiting not even 5 months. We are all human beings here and we must be treated equally as such.

Finally I just want to point out that the Home Office proudly advertises that they are “building a safe, JUST and tolerant society”, but to be very honest with you I don’t think the conduction of the Residence Card’s grant can be considered just whatsoever.


With my sincere thankful regards,
XXX"



No response.

I am also one of the many people being hold in this PATHETIC queue.
And in order to unite all the people waiting for the Residence Card, I have created a blog:
 http://www.ameliedelacroix.blogspot.com/

We must do something about it!