Fundamental Rights Section spective requirements are fulfilled in the case at hand, violates the constitutionally granted right of all citizens to stand equal before the law. The Ombudsman Board recognised the respective complaints as justified since they had been raised against official notifications which allowed for the limitation of the validity period of and/or the suspension of driving licences without substantiated reasons, leaving it unclear on which medical disability the measures adopted were based. In the case VA BD/377-V/05, set out in more detail on page 242, the Ombudsman Board managed to have the limitation of the validity period of the driving licence at issue annulled. In the other two cases, the official notification at issue could not be set aside, because the Ombudsman Board discovered in the course of the investigative process that a constitutionally valid approach would not have led to another substantive decision of the authority issuing the driving licence. 2.6.2.3 Discrimination against married couples of mixed nationality by the Foreign Nationals Law Package 2005? (VA BD/96-I/03, BMI 70.011/645-III/4/06) A Serbian national filed a complaint with the Ombudsman Board regarding the excessive duration of proceedings for granting a permanent residence permit. As stated under point 6.1.3.1 of the part of the report dealing with the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, investigations have been conducted also into suspected cases of bogus marriage. The legal position of so-called 'married couples of mixed nationality', whose problems have been also addressed by the media, has become more difficult since the Foreign Nationals Law Package 2005 entered into force. This prompted the Austrian Ministry of the Interior to issue a communication to all heads of the Offices of the Provincial Governments competent for the execution of the (Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz – NAG) Settlement and Residence Act. It stated that applications originally filed pursuant to the Fremdengesetz 1997 (Aliens Act 1997) in Austria, had not become generally inadmissible by the NAG. The breach of the formal requirement to file applications from abroad should therefore not lead to the inadmissibility of such applications and to a mere formal decision. In the case of substantive grounds for refusal, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior referred to the Right to respect for Private and Family Life pursuant to Art. 8 ECHR and the prohibition of arbitrariness introduced by the VfGH which is a corollary of the principle of equality. 56