BritCits

Steven

'I am a British citizen who has been living in Japan for the past six and a half years. My wife of four years is a Japanese national, and our one year old daughter has British citizenship. We planned to move to the UK in May this year, but we were prevented from doing so by the family immigration financial requirement rules introduced in July last year.

'My wife and I are both professionals, with qualifications and a great deal of experience in our fields. Furthermore, we can actually meet the savings requirement, but we were still unable to apply for a visa due to the accompanying paperwork requirements. The fact that my wife had been on maternity leave left us unable to supply recent payslips.

'As a result, our solicitor advised us to defer our visa application until my wife had been back at work for six months. My wife and I represent one of the more fortunate cases, in that we are still together as a family, and we will be able to apply for a visa in the near future.

' Even so, the process caused a great deal of stress at a time when my wife and I should have been focusing all of our attention on our baby. It has also been exorbitantly expensive. We have spent and are continuing to spend a small fortune just so I can win the right to live in my own country with my wife and my child.'