“As a British citizen, my country wants me to earn the right to live with my family..”
John is a British citizen born & raised in Edgware, now residing in Texas, USA. John has been living with Hayley, an American, since June 2009. They both agreed that their long term plans involved moving to England and raising their children here.
They married in August 2011 and welcomed their beautiful son, Ryan, a year later. Now they thought the time was right to move to England, wishing Ryan to be close to his 17 year old half sister, cousins, aunt and uncle who all live here. They want their son to have as good an education as possible, with English schools consistently ranked higher than their American counterparts. Indeed, they perceive English schools to be safer as well.
Hayley has been working for four years at an investment bank, as an associate level supervisor. It is possible she could obtain a transfer to the corporate office in London if there were no visa issues.
John is a labourer. He has 10 years experience working for Royal Mail in a job he enjoyed and hopes to return to it but positions that meet the minimum wage requirements for a partner visa do not come easily. Neither Hayley nor John are eyeing our streets paved with gold.
Hayley is the higher wage earner in their family, earning about $10,000 more per year than John. They are aware it will likely be the same in England. She enjoys her work, and is very good at it. She is confident that she will be able to support the family if she were allowed to become a member of our community.
The way the rules currently stand it seems that this couple has three choices.
a) Raise Ryan in America, while saving to meet the financial criteria - a process that will take years.
b) Risk everything and enter England on a visitor visa while John applies for a job satisfying the income criteria, then leave the country in order to apply for a spouse visa. Risky and costly.
c) Break up the family up for at least 15 months - Hayley remains in Texas working and raising Ryan on her own. John works 2 jobs to meet the wage requirements, after a year they would again be in the position of hoping and praying our application would be approved.
Ryan is 6 months old. Right now John works evenings and Hayley works during the day. They share childminding duties around their jobs. Neither can imagine the pain it would cause John to miss Ryan’s first steps and first words because the land where John was born, the only place he has ever called home, wants him to earn the right to raise his family there.
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