Total number of spouse visas processed and refused by selected nationalities, 2016

Author : Steve

A while back I made this Freedom of Information request in response to an online discussion, as I was curious about numbers of rates of refusals for a balanced selection of different nationalities, including some of the most common countries for foreign spouses. The text of the request is here :

I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act.

1. Total number of spouse visa applications processed for the following nationalities from January 1 2016 to 31 December 2016 : 
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United States

2. Total number of refusals for spouse visa applications processed for the following nationalities from January 1 2016 to 31 December 2016 : 
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United States

This was for a whole year, to even out anomalies such as local holidays. The response is in (see link above) and includes data per quarter, with information about applications made, processed, refused, withdrawn, and lapsed.

The table below shows the numbers of refusals divided by the number of applications over the whole year, followed by a percentage of refusals/applications. Note this comes with a few caveats, e.g. withdrawals and lapses are included in the total so don't assume that every visa not refused was processed; however the numbers for withdrawals and lapses are very low and wouldn't make much difference to the overall figures even if excluded. Note also that an application made in 2015 or 2016 may not be processed until 2016 or 2017.

These are included without comment as there is likely more than one reason for the differences. However the results are enlightening and seem to match the lived experience of both BritCits members and members of other online support groups and forums.

Country Refused/Total = Percentage (2016)
Japan 17/272 = 6.3%
Argentina 4/42 = 9.6%
Australia 93/881 = 10.6%
SouthAfrica 99/834 = 11.9%
Russia 70/582 = 12.0%
Canada 73/517 = 14.1%
USA 371/2544 = 14.6%
Brazil 76/480 = 15.8%
Mexico 28/175 = 16.0%
China 222/1071 = 20.7%
Israel 19/87 = 21.8%
Thailand 242/1094 = 22.1%
Turkey 176/787 = 22.4%
Egypt 102/338 = 30.2%
India 1236/3888 = 31.8%
Pakistan 3032/7472 = 40.6%
Nigeria 555/1131 = 49.1%

Note to the reader : You can make your own FOI request at whatdotheyknow.com, and I think an FOI request is something everybody should do at least once in their lives.

'Finally back together! Visa couple reunited'

Source : Express and Star (Wolverhampton)

So nice to see some good news :
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/07/30/finally-back-together-visa-couple-reunited/

Post with links to previous coverage of this :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/express-and-star-couple-face-spending.html

Express and Star | Couple face spending last New Year together

http://www.expressandstar.com/editors-picks/2013/12/30/couple-face-spending-last-new-year-together/

'Despite marrying 13 years ago at Kingswinford Christian Centre and living in the Black Country for three years – the Borders Agency has refused Adna a permanent visa to stay in the country.

'Adna, aged 35, who met Chris while he worked as a missionary in Sao Paulo in Brazil, is only on a tourist visa and must leave the country on January 23, unless the couple can overturn an earlier decision to refuse her a permanent stay.

'Currently, they await a date for an appeal hearing, but with the visa expiry date hanging over their heads, 38-year-old Chris fears he may lose his wife back to Brazil.

'“We are both exhausted with the situation,” he said. Chris is staying in London working as a church pastor for the First Renewal Presbyterian Church, a non-profit organisation from Brazil.

'... He said: “All we both want is to look forward and have a normal life together – but with this over us we can’t.

'“It’s costing us hours of time and thousands of pounds in money – but everything we are trying to do seems to be coming up against a brick wall. I don’t get why they won’t allow her to stay.” '

Previous coverage of the same case:

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/07/08/kingswinford-church-pastors-brazilian-wife-denied-entry-to-uk-in-rule-change/

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/07/31/couple-reunited-after-immigration-wrangle/

Spotted on Facebook #useful

A little something I discovered which might be of interest to those British Nationals with Central or South American Spouses. My wife is Ecuadorian and if we take the SS route then Spain would be the obvious choice. However if you exercise EU treaty rights in Spain then an "Ibero-American" (basically a native of any Spanish speaking country in the world) can apply for Spanish citizenship (and EU passport) after just two years residency enabling them to walk into the UK through the same immigration channel as you or I would.

(This includes spouses from the Philippines, Brazil and former Portuguese colonies).

Get Braulio back with his family and Facebook campaigning

https://www.facebook.com/getbrauliohome

'Kirsty needs her husband and Mya needs her Daddy! Due to a ridiculous new change in immigration law, Braulio is not being allowed to return to the UK after a family trip to Brazil,despite having a British wife for over 4 years and a British born daughter.

'One of my oldest friends fell in love. They became parents, got married and made a home together as a family!

'Unfortunately, during a family holiday back to Braulio's home country of Brazil and after 4 years of marriage they found out our immigration system here in the U.K won't give him a Visa to allow him back into the U.K.

'I could go on about our immigration system etc but the basic idea of this Facebook page is to show them how much support they have. Hopefully Kirsty will update the page with all the formal details.'

Families affected by the rules have set up many other Facebook campaigns to draw attention to their plight. Here are some of them :

'A marriage of three: Me, my husband, and UKBA' - https://www.facebook.com/groups/309071262570483/ (Emma and Haytham : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/haytham )

'Families united, not torn apart by politics' - https://www.facebook.com/familiesunitednotapart

'Family life is a right not a privilege' - https://www.facebook.com/FamilyLifeIsARightNotAPrivilege (previously : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/family-life-is-right-not-privilege.html )

'Help - I don't earn enough for my children to have the right to a family' - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Help-i-dont-earn-enough-for-my-children-to-have-the-right-to-a-family/323622374426634

'I just want to be able to live with my husband/wife in my country' - https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-just-want-to-be-able-to-live-with-my-husbandwife-in-my-country/170309133150324

'Married and living apart due to UKBA's current unrealistic requirements' - https://www.facebook.com/keptapartbyunrealisticrequirements

'We meet ALL the requirements but UKBA still refused our visa' - https://www.facebook.com/WeMeetAllTheRequirementsButUkbaStillRefusedOurVisa

'You cant buy LOVE, but the UKBA think you can' - https://www.facebook.com/pages/You-cant-buy-LOVE-but-the-UKBA-think-you-can/174992366006252

Community Organising is about building power and participating in democracy: being realistic in what we demand and winning key victories to improve the lives of communities across the country. - Citizens UK.

Ordinary people have enormous power to act - that power just needs to be taken.

Eve & Gustavo

“I regret voting for the Conservative party and naively believing their promise of upholding family values!”

Eve is a British citizen, born and bred. She is aged 55, on a good salary earning £29,000. She also has savings of £28,000 all the while building up her pension pot.

Eve had never met a man she wanted to settle down with. Until she met Gustavo.

To further her interest in Brazilian music and culture on a visit to Brazil. Eve was learning Portuguese when in January 2012 she met Gustavo, a delightful Brazilian man. Gustavo is affectionate, funny, fit with a beautiful singing voice. He is a great cook, is religious and is grateful. Although not having any formal education, Gustavo is a hard worker and life with him is always interesting.

Eve and Gustavo have a balanced relationship – as maturity often lends itself to. They give each other space for their own interests – and in each other have found the perfect combination of intimacy and freedom for self-development. He is her heart..for the first time, Eve feels truly at home when she is with someone – in Gustavo she has found her companion, soul mate and feels a deep sense of comfort and peace. He was a tremendous support when Eve’s father passed away in early 2013, staying by her side during the difficult time.

Since Eve has met Gustavo she has spent countless days, sleepless nights on the UKBA website and other related sites, trying to get her head round what it will take to marry this wonderful man. In June 2012 she realised the UKBA visa rules were changing but it was too soon in their relationship to think of marriage.

Now when she is ready, she is utterly dismayed that as a British citizen she now has to apply for four separate visas – fiancé, marriage, then another visa after 30 months and another after 5 years. And if an application fails at any stage, her then husband would have to leave.

Eve regrets she voted for the Conservative Party. She naively believed their promise of upholding family values. What of her own right to have a family? What has she worked for all her life, paid taxes for, voted for? She believed she lived in a civilised country which upheld human rights.

Despite earning over the £18,600 threshold, Eve is finding the process extremely onerous and expensive. Each stage of the visa application requires legal advice and she has come across cases of others who obtained legal advice yet their application was refused on a technicality. The first stage alone will cost her £6000 taking into account legal costs and flights to Brazil. She has that money now. But jobs are uncertain. Will she still have a job when they have to go through it all again at the next two stages? The rules are now that you have to have six months of salary at the required rate.

The rules have already changed twice and Eve is certain that they will change again and fees will rise further.

She is also concerned about the English language requirement. Surely the best place for Gustavo to learn English is in England?

Eve is risk averse. She doesn’t like uncertainty and understandably, doesn’t want to live in limbo for five years on the off-chance they will fall foul of constantly changing rules and have to uproot themselves from a well-settled life.

Jay & Alberto

“We just want to live our lives together..without interference from the state..”

Jay is a British citizen. He is in love with Alberto, from Brazil. They met in the summer of 2012, when Jay was travelling to South America for holiday and adventure. As luck would have it, on the third day of his trip, he met Alberto – a meeting which would go on to affect his entire life.

There was instantly something between them. Itineraries were amended to maximise time together. They both knew they were in love and had found something special together. Jay asked Alberto to be with him permanently, to marry him and to live with him in London. Jay naively thought the process would be straightforward. He left Alberto in Brazil and returned to UK. As Jay had been travelling he didn’t have a salary nor any savings. So they decided to wait for a few months so they could save up, before applying for the proposed civil partnership six month visa.

They managed to get together the huge amount of documentation required for the application. They filed the application in February 2013, and waited. In May we finally received a response. Due to an error, Alberto had not sat the complete English test. He had scored almost 90% in the reading and listening test but had not sat the speaking and writing side. Alberto’s high score and their obvious communication in English was not sufficient enough.

This was heartbreaking and stressful following such a long wait. Jay immediately booked a flight to go and be with Alberto. They had been apart too long already. They had lost the huge application fee and were not given the opportunity to be able to prove Alberto’s level of English.

Alberto decided to visit the UK before returning to Brazil for the re-application. Brazilians normally don’t need a visa to enter the UK for visits up to six months, however because he had been refused a visa already, they were advised to apply for one. However, in a catch 22, they were refused the visit visa anyway, because they had lready been refused the earlier visa! This was incredibly frustrating. That someone could decide Alberto would overstay his visit because he had had a refusal. Why after trying to do things legally and correct would he want to be in the UK illegally? It didn’t make sense.

So now they’re going to reapply for the proposed civil partnership visa – another £900. It is upsetting at the length of time they’ve had to be apart. Alberto still has not met Jay’s family after over a year of their being together. Alberto and Jay’s grandmother were never able to meet each other.

Jay is a hard-working tax-payer. He exceeds the financial requirements, yet finds the process difficult.

Jay has never claimed any benefits. He has a good job and Alberto is a talented graphic designer who should also be able to find work in the UK and pay taxes. With no recourse to public funds.

All this couple wants is to start their lives together, build a home, have a family, contribute to society and the economy and lead the lives they want together – without interference from the state. There should not be so many obstacles in the way.

No recourse to public funds - as seen in fiance, spouse and civil partner visas.

Jay and Alberto

Brian

“ I won’t give up and will move to Ireland if that’s the only way I can be with my family.”

Brian is a British citizen. He is 70 years old and retired.

Brian is also married to a Brazilian woman – they knew each other for a year before getting married nearly a year and a half ago.

As almost every single married couple does, this couple too wishes to live together. As Brian needs to be in the UK – with 4 children and 10 grandchildren here, this isn’t surprising - he wishes to settle in the UK, with his wife.

However, the Secretary of State does not see it that way. Brian’s wife’s application for leave to remain was refused, with the advice they received from the government being that there was no reason why the couple could not carry on with their family life in Brazil.

Brian’s wife would have qualified under the pre-July 2012 rules, increasingly being dubbed inhumane, unfair and xenophobic.

Brian will not give up, however is considering exercising his treaty rights as an EU citizen to ensure his family is now broken up – which would mean coming out of retirement and finding a job in another EU/EEA country, just to be able to one day, return home. At any age, but especially his, he shouldn’t have to fight for his right to live with his own family, in his own country.

Putting a 70 year old in a situation where he has to come out of retirement, move countries and prove his right to be with his wife is something worthy of politicians hanging their heads in shame.

‘No free man shall be arrested, imprisoned,  dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or in any way victimised, or attacked except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land' - Magna Carta.

Spotted on Facebook

'Just one more story amongst the thousands - my Brazilian husband and I have been married nearly 18 years, same rules apply. Came back so I could be closer to help my parents in their old age. Struggling to meet the financial requirement. The emotional strain and toll on couples and their families is horrendous. What a pitiless world we live in.'