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My Austrian husband and I will be travelling to the UK in April 2019 so I've applied for the EEA (just like before). I can't really wait with my application till January (3 months until the trip) because we'll be abroad in February and I need my passport back for that.

Upon filling out the application I saw some appointments on Dec, 27 that I couldn't book because we'll be on vacation in another country that week.

For the last three days, there have been no appointments available at all, I keep getting the message "No appointments are currently available for this location" (that's for Vienna).

I have contacted the visa4uk support per Email. They told me to use the approved Internet browser and closed the ticket. I replied to their Email asking for further help since my issue wasn't of technical nature (I use an approved browser), but they don't seem to reply anymore.

So how can the situation with unavailable appointments be resolved?

13.12.2018 Edit after comment: My national residence permit is not the Article 10 card.

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  • At the risk of asking the obvious ARE you using the approved internet browser? Because this may be a web error where your browser is showing no appointments where there actually are some.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 18:00
  • Yes, I am, I double-checked and sent the support a screenshot.
    – Ewige Studentin
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 18:05
  • So I have created a new application with an earlier travel date (3 months from today) but I keep seeing the same message "No appointments are currently available for this location". Maybe there are too few appointments and they are made available irregularly? Either way, my support ticket seems to be closed for good. I'll wait a couple more days and try calling them.
    – Ewige Studentin
    Commented Dec 13, 2018 at 8:19
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    I don't see that this has been asked in your earlier question: as your husband is Austrian, do have an Article 10 residence card (or Article 20)? If so, it allows a non-EEA national family member of an EEA national to travel to the UK without the requirement to obtain an EEA family permit. Here's the UK guidance.
    – Giorgio
    Commented Dec 13, 2018 at 11:59
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    If you upload an image, identifying info redacted, those here should be able to tell (EEA family permit is similar to Article 10 card). Article 10 residence card should say Residence Card of a Family Member of a Union Citizen or (forgive my Deutsch) Aufenthaltskarte eines Familienmitglieds eines Unionsbürgers. Article 20 would be Daueraufenthaltskarte eines Familienmitglieds eines Unionsbürgers. In Scotland, was it that you were allowed as you were with your EU husband, but would not be without him. (And if your surnames differ, you may want to have your marriage certificate handy).
    – Giorgio
    Commented Dec 13, 2018 at 13:39

1 Answer 1

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I got a reply from the visa4uk support team. They say appointments will be available later in the month. This answer implies the issue doesn't gave anything to do with my personal situation and application, however, the support stated again that they don't consider such things in their replies.

EDIT: I have since got a very short-term appointment. When I went to the visa center, there were a lot of people desperate for appointments because their travel date was really soon. The visa center staff explained that they were very busy, hence the difficulties with getting an apointment online (later months seem to be made available only with the passage of time). The short-term appointments like the one I got (made available Mon, 17.12 for Wed, 19.12) were, and I quote the staff, "a fluke, we agreed to do one extra day out of the goodness of our hearts".

The staff said to one very desperate lady that they'd contact UKVI and see if they can do anything. I left by the time they tried so I don't know whether they were successful, but the staff didn't seem optimistic.

However, for really urgent cases it seems indeed advisable to contact UKVI (via visa4uk support) because they make the appointments available and not the visa center staff.

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  • Regarding Brexit, the current plan is for free movement to continue during a transition period until the end of 2020 if I recall correctly. As I understand it, the EEA FP scheme would continue through the transition period, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to curtail it earlier.
    – phoog
    Commented Dec 14, 2018 at 19:02
  • @phoog, my emergency plan is to get a standard visitor visa on top of the EEA in March if I'm lucky enough to get an appointment AND the politicians make up their mind by then :D
    – Ewige Studentin
    Commented Dec 14, 2018 at 19:20
  • I've been checking for appointments all the time. Today a bunch of new possible appointments became available for Wednesday's afternoon (that's in two days time)! Odd and very short-term, but I'm not about to complain.
    – Ewige Studentin
    Commented Dec 17, 2018 at 9:13

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