BritCits

Gillian

Gillian's story, and her family, has been featured in her local press. She tells the story in her own words below :

'MY SON and I have been fighting to get his wife and two small children back home to Scotland from the US since last September. I lived in the US for a number of years. All four of my sons (UK citizens) met and married their wives while there (the girls are all US citizens).

I retired and came back home to the UK in 2006 and my third son, Kevin followed in 2008 with his wife Jamie and their daughter Eowyn. They moved into a house in the same village and the little girl went to the local school. All was going well. Jamie was working managing a local farm shop and ice-cream parlour and Kevin went back up to University to get his IT degree.

Jamie gave birth to a son in August of 2011. In March of 2012 she received news that her dad, never a well man, was seriously ill in California and needed major heart surgery. Jamie was ‘settled’ here under the old 2-year visa program at the time and had been here for four years. She was due to apply for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ in April 2012 but did not have the money needed for that AND enough money for air fare for herself and the two children to fly to California to be with her dad. Naturally she chose to see her dad.

Jamie’s father died in September of 2012 and we turned our attention to getting her back home. Unfortunately, as you know, the rules had changed by then and we found that, because Kevin had been at university and not working full time, he did not have the 6 months’ worth of pay slips and bank-statements needed to even apply for Jamie’s visa.

He immediately abandoned his degree and got a job as a security guard working 60-65 hours per week to make the minimum amount of £18,600 needed to get her home. His daughter already had indefinite leave based upon Kevin’s citizenship and his son was born in the UK so neither of them needed visa clearance. However, because his wife was caught up in this mess the children were also prevented from coming home.

It took a further 6 months to get the necessary paperwork together to apply. All told, they had been apart for a full year. His son, who had only been 6 months old when they left only knew his dad as a face on the computer. Jamie had no job in the US and they moved around staying with various friends and relatives for the entire year they were there. The little girl’s education has been severely compromised as she has moved from school to school during the years they have been ‘nomads’ in the USA and it is going to take her several months if not years to catch up.

The happy part of this story is that, with the help of our local MP, some local press coverage and some good luck and fortunate timing with air fares, Jamie and the two children are back here in Scotland now. They got home on the 27th of March. It is taking a little while to settle but they are so very happy to be home at last.

This family immigration law is punitive in the extreme. It punishes UK citizens because they are the only ones the government has control over. EU citizens can come and go without check. It is purely a numbers game being played by people without conscience and should be struck down.'

Editor's note : People will do anything to be with their families, as this story - of devotion on two continents and over several years - shows. Even if it means giving up a degree and promising career. Family, loved ones, are more important than anything for normal, right-thinking people.

This is why rules which seek to divide families are unnatural and doomed to failure. The government cannot build a Berlin Wall through people's hearts.

Unfortunately Kevin was forced to give up his studies and work as a security guard. This story highlights how rules which split families cause damage to the broader economy as well. 

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