Migrants' Rights Network : Family Migration: Labour and Lib Dems increase the pressure on Home Office ministers
http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/blog/2014/03/family-migration-labour-and-lib-dems-increase-pressure-home-office-ministers
'... The cat and mouse game of how many family reunion visa applications have been rejected or deferred on the grounds of not meeting the financial threshold rages on with Liberal Democrat MP David Ward requesting deferral figures. Colin Yeo of Free Movement estimates that 3,014 family visa applications are on hold. Brokenshire refused to give the figures because:
'The Home Office does not hold internal management information on the number of spouse visa applications deferred on financial grounds while awaiting further evidence on the sponsors income since the new family rules were introduced on 9 July 2012.
'Similarly, Labour MP John Woodcock earlier this month queried the number of spousal visas granted in 2013. He was told 24,641 but it was ‘not possible to separately identify those granted visas under the old family rules and those granted visas under new family rules implemented on 9 July 2012.’
'Woodcock also requested data on the average time it takes to process a spousal visa application. He was told it is unnecessary to differentiate between spousal visas and other third country nationals visa applications.
'Parliamentarians are increasingly becoming irritated by the income threshold and the bluntness of the new family migration rules. It is good to see MPs such as Woodcock, Hames, and Murphy speaking out more openly about the impacts of this policy. It gives extra strength to the campaign against dividing families and more MPs and Peers should feel able to highlight the unfairness of these rules to their party leadership.'
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