Migrants' Rights Network: £18,600 income requirement: pricing UK workers out of a family life

http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/blog/2014/06/18600-income-requirement-pricing-uk-workers-out-family-life

MRN: '... A few weeks ago, we were contacted by a lady called Margaret, who lives in South Wales. Margaret has worked for the past decade as a legal secretary for a private solicitors firm, earning £13,500 a year. However, her salary is not considered adequate in order to sponsor her Tunisian husband to enter the UK, and so they are living apart for the foreseeable future...

'...  Margaret is not the only person whose earnings are too low to meet the rules and be with her husband. 47% of the working population are reportedly unable to sponsor a loved one, on the basis of their earnings. Because £18,600 is considerably higher than the national minimum wage (approximately £13,200 per annum at a full time rate), some people, like Margaret, are in full-time employment and still fail to meet the rules.

'But, crucially, where you live and work in the UK is a significant determiner of your ability to live with a foreign partner. New research by MRN, released today, shows that being able to live with your non-EU spouse is now essentially subject to a postcode lottery.'

Full report: http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/files/publications/MRN_Family-Migration_Briefing-June_2014.pdf

Sunday evening links

Useful for those from Northern Ireland.

'Dear Home Office,

'I have searched on the Home Office website and have not found the information that I require. Therefore, I would request that this information be released under FOI.

'Please advise how an Irish passport holder, born in Northern Ireland but not holding a British passport, is viewed by the British government? Is this person automatically viewed as holding British Citizenship, regardless of whether he/she (under the Good Friday Agreement) view him/herself as exclusively Irish and does not hold a British passport?'

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/irish_nationals_from_northern_ir
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Previously :
British citizen forced to choose: your country or your family.

http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/british-citizen-forced-to-choose-your.html

A British citizen has been forced to renounce his birthright - his British citizenship - to be with his loved ones.

He is a Northern Ireland resident, which entitles him to Irish citizenship. Obtaining an Irish passport and going through the process of renouncing British citizenship - which he has held all his life - has allowed him to become a non-UK, EU national in the country of his birth. This has allowed him to live with his wife.
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'We're a family not a case number'.

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/%E2%80%98we%E2%80%99re-family-not-case-number%E2%80%99

'Debbie Catwell is a British citizen. Her father served in the British Army for 23 years.

'Her husband, Robin, is from Barbados, the couple have been together for 20 years and have four children. The youngest is 8 years old.

'They live in Barbados, but kept links to the UK. In 2011, the Catwells’ decided to move back for the children’s education.

'Debbie said: “Initially, we didn't apply for a spousal visa. Robin came and went as a visitor as he owns his business in Barbados.

'“But when he came back in October 2012 he was asked about his frequent visits. He explained to them he had children and a spouse here. He was given one week in the country and told to go back to Barbados and apply for a spousal visa from there.”

'The family applied in December of that year, but were turned down as Debbie, who became a stay-at-home mother after her six-year-old daughter died of cancer, does not come into the £18,600 threshold.

'Debbie said: “Robin does not have even as much as parking ticket, so we thought it was an open and shut case. I was shocked when he told me we had been refused.

'“We appealed that refusal and we were promised an answer by July this year – but there is no news till yet.”

'As Robin cannot come to the UK until he gets his spousal visa, the family have been separated, which is having a “devastating” impact on their children, particularly their behaviour and schoolwork, said Debbie.

Reunite the Forde-Catwell family :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/a-mother-whose-husband-was-forced-to.html

Facebook campaign :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/440521456017147/

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The Voice | Immigration policy unfairly targetting the Commonwealth?

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/immigration-policy-unfairly-targeting-commonwealth

'Until the end of 2012, parents and grandparents of UK citizens were able to migrate after the age of 65. They can now only join their loved-ones if they “need long-term personal care to perform everyday tasks, such as washing and cooking,” that is not available in the country where they live.

'Additionally, the UK sponsor has to agree to maintain, care and accommodate them without using public funds, such as benefits.

'And to have a non-EU spouse join you in the UK, you have to earn an annual salary of £18,600. This rises to £22,400 for families with a child and a further £2,400 for each extra child.

'During a parliamentary debate last month MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott, rebuked the Government’s attack on immigration.

'She said:  “It is...not true, as some people seek to imply, that immigrants cause low wages. That has been the anti-immigration attack since the 19th century. Immigrants do not cause low wages; predatory employers, insufficient workplace protection and weakened trade unions do that.”
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Theresa May under fire for bid to fly out hunger striker Ifa Muaza.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/30/theresa-may-hunger-striker-ifa-muaza-asylum-uk

'Private plane carrying 'near to death' asylum seeker forced back to UK.

'Home Office officials were refusing to comment on Saturday evening on an apparently botched effort to deport a seriously ill man from Britain by private plane. A jet chartered by the government was forced to return to the UK with Nigerian Ifa Muaza and immigration officials still on board, after a 20-hour flight that saw the plane prevented from entering Nigerian airspace. It diverted to Malta, where an angry dispute broke out with the authorities over the plane's right to use its airstrip.'
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Petition | RELEASE ISA MUAZU NOW - Don't let Isa die in detention!: Release Isa from Harmondsworth IRC immediately.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/release-isa-muazu-now-don-t-let-isa-die-in-detention-release-isa-from-harmondsworth-irc-immediately

Posts about Isa Muazu :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/isa%20muazu

British citizen forced to choose: your country or your family

A British citizen has been forced to renounce his birthright - his British citizenship - to be with his loved ones.

He is a Northern Ireland resident, which entitles him to Irish citizenship. Obtaining an Irish passport and going through the process of renouncing British citizenship - which he has held all his life - has allowed him to become a non-UK, EU national in the country of his birth. This has allowed him to live with his wife.

He says :

'Just got my wife's EEA Permit, finally this ordeal is over, I am no longer a UK Citizen, being born in Northern Ireland I renounced my UK Citizenship, cost £187, it took one month. We then applied for the EEA Family Permit, that also took a month, plus a two week delay while DHL decided to go slow on an express parcel to China ! So after an initial lengthy wait for a visa refusal as a UK/Irish dual citizen, I decided a UK passport has no benefits what so ever. I'm Irish now and damn proud to be sure!!!

'I wish all of you good, decent, genuine people who are going through this terrible ordeal of separation or a expensive temporary move abroad all the very best of luck and a speedy return to normal life.  '

If this seems like a bizarre twist, it is. It really does highlight the absurdity of these rules.

Maria

“I satisfy the financial threshold, but as we have not lived together, how do I prove a durable relationship to the Home Office’s satisfaction?”

Maria is a British citizen from Northern Ireland, with a boyfriend who is a citizen of the USA.

They have known each other since 2000 when as teenagers they became friends, staying in touch across the Atlantic through emails and phone calls.

In March 2010, their relationship developed into something more than ‘just friends’. They visited each other twice a year and now wish to make their relationship more permanent by living together in Northern Ireland.

Maria earns £30,000 a year, well in excess of the £18,600 requirement. However, they are not quite ready for the commitment of marriage and so flummoxed by how to prove that theirs is a ‘durable relationship’ when they have not been living together so don’t have joint household bills, tenancy agreements or a mortgage.

This is a couple who simply wants the opportunity to have a proper relationship, explore the potential for a future together before rushing into marriage. A couple that should be admired for being mature.

Yet this is a couple that is afraid they will be caught in the Home Office net of finding reasons to refuse visa applications rather than using common sense.

Rebecca and Wes

I want a kidney from Theresa May!

'My husband, Wesley, at the age of 42, moved here to the US to marry me in 2005.  He moved here primarily because we didn't wish to relocate my teenage son.  My husband was anxious to begin a new life in America, but through the years we both began to talk about a return to the UK.  My husband's health suffers poorly in our temperature extremes, for one.  At any rate, we always felt we could "go home" when we were ready.  The Home Office would recognize our marriage as legitimate because it was more than four years old; they would require me to have a visa and  would require we have enough income or savings to support ourselves; they would cover that visa with a stamp in my American passport that said "no recourse to public funds".  This was all fine with us.  We knew before July 2012 that governments have rules and don't expect people to just waltz in.

'Now - we cannot go back to the UK together, as a married couple - unless we prove we have £62500 in savings.  Instead, we must endure a lengthy separation while my husband goes back to Britain -  finds a job earning more than £18600 - and works that job for at least another six months - before we can even file with the Home Office to be reunited.  Or - unless he can procure a job in the UK, whilst still in the US, that earns that amount, AND can prove he has earned the US equivalent of £18600 in the last year.

'My husband is a simple man.  I am the breadwinner in our family.  I have worked since I was 16 years old, and am presently the assistant to the Director of a large division (400 employees) of a mental health provider.  But my income in the US - our life and the fact we have never been on benefits in our married life - does not count towards the sponsorship requirements.  My future earning potential in the UK does not count.  My husband is what you call (in the UK) a "carer".  He attends to developmentally delayed individuals in a group day setting.  His work is valuable and necessary to society.  He is GOOD at his job - the individuals love him, and he loves them.  But it doesn't pay the US equivalent of £18600, and it would not pay £18600 in the UK.  So - the third option I listed above is out for us.  It is either have vast savings or separate and look for work.

'We would be returning to a life in Northern Ireland - the odds of my husband getting a job, in NI, in his field that pays £18600 are slim to none.  But he COULD get a job as a carer - there are plenty of those jobs out there, even in the UK's economic climate.  But those jobs, while they would pay a livable wage in Northern Ireland, are insufficient under the new rules.  The new rules don't just "punish" those who are in lower wage professions - they punish people who live outside the south of England - areas with lower wages.

'If we were to sell off our home and possessions to move to the UK, we would have approximately £20000 in savings.  Under the old rules, this would have been more than enough for the Home Office to grant me a visa.  And, IF we were so inclined to try and get benefits, that amount of money would prevent it.  Under the old rules, I could not possibly have become "a public charge".  In short - we are not "skivers and shirkers".

'My husband suffers from polycystic kidney disease.  I cannot send him back to the UK, alone, to look for work.  He is on a special diet that I am sure he would not be able to maintain as a "bachelor" living by himself.  His blood pressure requires constant monitoring.  I am his "carer" as well as his wife and partner.  Even with the NHS on hand, my husband would fall into ill health if he had to go back alone, for many months possibly a year or more, to look for work to satisfy the Home Office requirements.

'I have been active in immigration message boards across the internet for eight years now.  I advise on three boards and have written two articles for the Transpondia website.  I only mention this because I want you to know that neither I or my husband would expect any government to just blithely swing open its doors for us just because we are "in love".  We know there are always rules, and we followed those rules to bring my husband to the US.  But these measures by the current coalition government to restrict migration at the expense of families are harsh indeed.  The financial requirements are FAR more harsh than spousal visas to the United States (I would idly note that the Home Office misrepresented the US family immigration system in its consultation report to the public and to Parliament).  And I mention Internet message boards because the reaction of British expats, across those communities, is one of deep disappointment; of dismay; and sometimes of utter misery.  Many now feel "exiled" from Britain.

'Because I read the internet so much (perhaps more than I should) I know that much of the web "focus" regarding these rules has been on couples who are living apart at the moment.  In most internet writings, there is a British citizen, in the UK, who is separated from a loved one.  The issue of the Expat, abroad with their foreign spouse, gets less mention - even by groups like Migrants Rights Network.  But the new rules are just as devastating to the Expat as to a UK citizen living at home (check out the fourm "Returning to the UK" on BritishExpats.com for proof).   And in my opinion, the rules are a clever craft of the magic concept of "net migration" to keep out people who have already left.  For it feels like the British government never wants its people to return.  At least not with a non-EU spouse.
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Rebecca is a regular contributor to the Transpondia online forum which focusses on international relationships : 
http://www.londonelegance.com/transpondia/measure-twice-cut-once-primer-do-it-yourself-immigration

A British citizen has been sentenced to ill health and exile by his own government, in the name of a meaningless immigration target.
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“Our native soil draws all of us, by I know not what sweetness, and never allows us to forget.”
― Ovid