A reader writes :

'Our much loved daughter Joanne has been living and working as an English teacher in Suzhou, China for almost six years. Whilst there she met and fell in love with Anthony who is Chinese national.  He is currently a Mandarin teacher who also speaks excellent English. 

'They would desperately like to work and make their home in England. Current rules would make this almost impossible without having a very large bank account. 

'It seems that my daughter's wish to come back to her country of birth with her husband is to be denied to her. We all miss her so much and never dreamed that this country's rules could change in such a callous way.

'We supported her wish to see a bit more of the world and experience life in another country, and also her wish to get married to Anthony, an extremely polite and well educated young man who would definitely be an asset to this country.

'We have visited our daughter in China on four occasions and met Anthony's parents who welcomed us into their home.  We are both retired and we know that we may not be able to continue to afford the expensive flights or cope with the travelling for  many more years. 

'We chat to our daughter daily and we are all desperately following any news that may give us some hope that things will change for the better. '

Joanne and Anthony are now looking into exercising free movement rights for their future :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23029195
http://www.jcwi.org.uk/blog/2013/04/19/surinder-singh-and-family-unity
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/surinder%20singh

Anthony & Appril

Anthony is a 60 year old British citizen. He is married to Appril, a 54 year old Bolivian woman.

They love each other very much; Anthony lived with her in Bolivia for two years. They met in 2008 and married in September 2010 in La Paz, Bolivia. At the time Anthony had a very good job in the UK, with a salary of £35,000 p.a.

He proposed to Appril before he lost his employment (Appril has British ancestry but from her great grandparents - too far back to be eligible for citizenship). Despite losing his employment they decided to go ahead with the wedding as Anthony was confident he would soon find employment by June 2009. He applied for over 1000 jobs – flexible in location as he just wanted his wife with him.

Unfortunately, he didn’t even get one job interview. As a result of this both Appril and Anthony thought it best for them to start their married life together in Bolivia.

Anthony has very few relations in the UK. His mother, aged 99, gave Anthony her blessing to move to Bolivia. Even though he is her only visitor from one year to the next at the nursing home. Anthony felt guilty leaving her, however he did ring her every week from Bolivia.

Anthony spent the happiest two years of his life with Appril and gained Bolivian residency and permission to look for employment within that country. However once again he found job search difficult; much of the employment in Bolivia is family run and employs family members only. Apart from his mother, Anthony has two sons in the UK from who he is estranged.

Anthony returned to the UK in June 2011 looking for employment before the implementation of the minimum wage requirement of £18600 to be able to bring a spouse into the UK. He tried his level best to find employment - alas still without success, applying for all types of jobs at all levels.

Appril and Anthony have been apart for over two years now. He is lonely despite their staying in touch via Skype and phone.

They are prepared to reside in almost any country in the world to be together. Anthony would love Appril to join him in the UK although he is happy to permanently or temporarily move to another country; he is happy to even have a job washing dishes.

Yet another citizen who may need to leave his home for good to be with his family.

The Last of England, Ford Madox-Brown - http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-last-of-england-and-britcits-meetup.html