BritCits

Alex

“The parents issue is the most important thing to me and I will move countries if I have to rather than abandon them…but I shouldn’t have to leave my home when I can guarantee to look after them with no recourse to public funds.”

Alex is a British citizen from Dartford, Kent with Oxford University as his alma mater. A property
investor and entrepreneur in the UK for 12 years, he has financially supported his parents in Ukraine during this period as well.

His parents are both 65 years old, living in rented accommodation in Ukraine because they sold their property with the intention to move to the UK and bring their life savings with them. They have no relatives other than Alex and his wife. They somewhat know the UK, having stayed here for a month or two every couple of years, but travelling is proving more and more difficult with age and its unavoidable symptoms.

Alex has worked hard and is earning over £100,000 a year. He is not on benefits (indeed, he wouldn't even qualify). He wishes to have his parents with him here, to enjoy and share his success, after years of hard work and sacrifices made by them all. It's well overdue. His parents would not qualify for benefits in the UK, with a very clear no recourse to public funds stamped in their passport, but Alex is willing to sign a waiver, provide a guarantee and take out private healthcare cover to alleviate any such fears this government might have nonetheless.


However under the current immigration rules this is still impossible. Now Alex is not just going to shrug his shoulders and say, "oh well" and think by sending money to Ukraine his responsibilities are fulfilled. No, that’s not how he was brought up and it’s not how he would want his children to treat him. So Alex is considering moving countries. Going to another EEA country for a year or so where he can have his parents with him and then using the Surinder Singh route to return to his home, the UK, with his parents. What is being denied to him by the UK is allowed to him by Europe.

With his excellent credentials, he has already had job offers from Frankfurt and Zurich but does not want to leave unless forced to. For him though the parents issue is the most important factor at the moment and one for which he will move if he needs to. The point remains that he should not need to.

With him will go his money for a year, the boost so sorely needed by our economy.

Yes, Alex intends to return. But he might fall in love with his new home and never do so (supporters of Tory net migration target with hands up in victory are oblivious to the fact that by encouraging exile of our citizens we are damaging our own future).

Even if Alex does return, he won't forget what this government has done, and what the opposition has let them do. People never do forget when it’s their own family and family life that is threatened. And the saddest thing is - unless there's a change pronto, he won't ever trust the system in UK again, because it will have failed him.