Man facing deportation over wife's salary gets visa


http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-31691551

Some good news for this family. Many more are still struggling.

Previous post on their campaign :
http://britcits.blogspot.jp/2014/08/leeds-family-could-be-torn-apart-by.html

More inspirational campaigns using local, national and social media :
http://britcits.blogspot.com/search/label/campaigns

Via the excellent I Love My Foreign Spouse Facebook group.

Poster by David

Divided families in the news

Sources :Torquay Herald Express, Burton Mail, Cornish Guardian

The extent of the effect of family division rules is highlighted by these recent news stories, which have been covered in the local press. It would be good for national media and national politicians to join the dots to see how widespread these stories are - thousands upon thousands of families affected or divided.

My own experience, after 2 1/2 years of campaigning and working with divided families, is that the local news media does a very good job of picking up on the stories of those affected - which can then be relayed to the national media or by campaigning MPs, as some of the stories on this blog attest. I'd suggest to anyone affected that approaching the local newspaper or local radio station is a very effective way of getting your story out there and building momentum for your campaign.

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Torquay Herald Express : Brixham family 'could be torn apart by immigration rules'

http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/Family-torn-apart-immigration-rules/story-24204122-detail/story.html

'Andrew Wade, 42, has been married to his wife Kingdao, a Thai national, for five years and has three children with her. But he fears his family could be devastated by bureaucracy and immigration rules as her visa to stay in the UK is soon to run out.'

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Burton Mail : Family ripped apart by laws campaigns to reunite children with their father

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/8203-IMMIGRATION-Family-ripped-apart-laws/story-24261731-detail/story.html

'Her husband, Omer, should be there with her and their two daughters, but, instead, he is stuck in one of the most dangerous places in the world, almost 3,000 miles away.'

Related - Christine and Ziad : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/ziad
Nusrin and Shafik : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/shafik
Posts on divided families and the situation in Syria : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/syria

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Cornish Guardian : Polzeath family faces being torn apart due to immigration battle

http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Polzeath-family-faces-torn-apart-immigration/story-23055529-detail/story.html

... "The rules need to be readdressed by Theresa May and the Home Office," she said. "The disproportionately high financial requirements serve only to filter out the rich from the poor and put a price on love and happiness.'


More stories of divided families : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/stories

Thousands of UK families forced to live apart due to visa rules

Source : Workpermit.com via QQ

http://www.workpermit.com/news/2014-10-07/thousands-of-uk-families-forced-to-live-apart-due-to-visa-rules
http://goo.gl/s2Jmuo

'A UK Labour MP has called for income requirements for marriage visas to be reviewed, after being contacted by two families who are being forced to live apart under the current scheme.'

'... The first is Phillip and Kyoko Malloy, who met and married while Mr Malloy was teaching English in Japan. Mr Malloy then returned to the UK with his wife...

'The second family is Mr and Mrs Briggs, who met in New Zealand after Mrs Briggs moved there for work. They married, and settled down happily with successful careers, until Mrs Briggs decided she needed to be closer to family in the UK..'

Save Mae Campaign video

Source :Save Mae Campaign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu1-35TY_o8

 After 20 years of marriage, wife from Bristol now faces deportation :
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/20-years-marriage-wife-faces-deportation/story-23169702-detail/story.html

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Bristol-family-seperated-wife-faces-possibility/story-23175626-detail/story.html

http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/after-20-years-of-marriage-wife-from.html

After 20 years of marriage, wife from Bristol now faces deportation

Source :Bristol Post

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/20-years-marriage-wife-faces-deportation/story-23169702-detail/story.html

'Mr Draper, 59, a property developer, said: "After more than a year of visa negotiations involving lawyers and wranglings with the court, our faith in the immigration system has been totally destroyed. We don't know why Mae wasn't given a one-on-one interview at the time of applying, in which our circumstances could have been explained properly, instead of forms containing tick boxes.

"Mae is a trained midwife and wants to work and live in this country but is being denied that opportunity, despite us having been married for nearly 20 years.

"The UK Border Agency should not be using immigration rules in this way, to keep a decent hard-working family apart."

Don't take my mum away, Hanham teenager begs immigration authorities : http://theweekin.co.uk/uncategorized/dont-take-mum-away-hanham-teenager-begs-immigration-authorities/

'A DVD highlighting the Save Mae Campaign has been produced, in which the couple’s 14-year-old daughter Rhian, a student at the John Cabot Academy in Kingswood, pleads with the immigration authorities not to take her mum away, saying: “My family is being torn apart by the UK Government.” '

‘Under detention they think you’re criminal’


Source : Portsmouth News

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/under-detention-they-think-you-re-criminal-1-6355620

"If I’m deported there’s no chance of seeing my son. I left Nigeria 31 years ago – where on earth I going to stay? I don’t know anybody in Nigeria, my mum died in 2002, my dad died when I was four years old. What happens to my wife and who looks after my son? They call this justice – there is no justice in the Home Office. Detention is inhuman – I don’t know what to do."

Via Dinnae deport oor Arbroath Angie.

Leeds school caretaker who lost fight to stay in UK in emotional exit


Source :Yorkshire Evening Post

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/leeds-school-caretaker-who-lost-fight-to-stay-in-uk-in-emotional-exit-1-6864955

'... Staff at Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings CE Primary School held a special assembly yesterday to pay tribute to hardworking colleague Portas Ongondo, who had worked there for six years.

'Pupils returning to their classrooms for the autumn term were upset to find the caring character was no longer a feature of their school lives.

'The dedicated worker, whose commitment to the school “far exceeded the role of caretaker”, was told during the summer break he could no longer live and work in the UK following the breakdown of his marriage. '

Portas on Twitter : https://twitter.com/PortasUK

Via I Love My Foreign Spouse and Dinnae Deport Oor Arbroath Angie.

'Henry is being removed to Nigeria today.He hasn't been there for 31 yrs. He leaves behind his British wife & children.'


Via https://twitter.com/Heather_Jones5/status/517250357039476736

'Too many laws, not enough justice – voice from Haslar' - http://unlocked.org.uk/blog/too-many-laws-not-enough-justice-voice-from-haslar/

There's still time to submit a statement to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration's Detention Inquiry - http://detentionforum.org.uk/detention-inquiry-2/

Deadline today!

'Mary's story'


Source : Family Immigration Alliance

http://familyimmigrationalliance.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/marys-story/

'... I can not take my child to Iran unless my husband goes to the Iranian Islamic centre in London and convert to Islam: a religion that nor me not my husband believe in or practice. All this in order to be allowed to apply for a visa to take my child to Iran. I feel trapped in a prison  and back in Iran I felt the same I don’t know where on this planet I can go to live a simple life and feel free.'

Please follow the Family Immigration Alliance : http://familyimmigrationalliance.wordpress.com/

Kilwinning dad reveals campaign to change UK immigration rules keeping his family apart 

Source : Daily Record (Scotland)

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/kilwinning-dad-reveals-campaign-change-4164196

'Phillip Malloy has begun a campaign to call on the UK Government to review changes to immigration law that are keeping his wife and son on the other side of the world. He first met his wife Kyoko at a Halloween party in Japan five years ago, where he was working as an English teacher. The couple married in 2011 and began to build a life together with their son Joshua, now three years old. But what should have been the start of a dream life turned quickly into a nightmare after UK rules on immigration were tightened up in July 2012.'

Phillip and Kyoko's e-petition is here :
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/62657

Previous post  :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/scots-father-reveals-his-heartache-as.html

Are you affected by the UK's family division rules?

Do you have children?

Please make your voice heard! Contribute to the Children's Commissioner's survey.
The Office of the Children's Commissioners is following up on the concerns and issues by all of the campaigning over the last couple of years.

The OCC is conducting research on the impact of the rules on children with a view to, in the Children's Commissioner for England's words, 'achieve a just settlement for families who are, or who will be, divided by the implementation of these rules.'

If you're affected by family migration rules, have children, and have a few moments, please complete the survey :
http://www.scribd.com/doc/235449747/Children-s-Commissioner-Questionnaire
or here :
http://family.migrantsrights.org.uk/news/2014/office-childrens-commissioner-seeks-evidence-those-affected-family-migration-rules
or here :
http://www.jcwi.org.uk/blog/2014/08/01/childrens-commissioner-investigates-family-migration-rules

Blog post :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/childrens-commissioner-questionnaire.html

Full instructions on where to send the survey to - as well as a letter from the Children's Commissioner for England herself, and interesting reading on the background to this and the work of the OCC - are in the links above.

* The Children's Commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the voice of the child in government. They have spoken out on the issue before, and wish to follow this up further. Please help them achieve this.

The Children's Commissioners' briefing on the APPG on Migration 'Report of the Inquiry into the New Family Migration Rules' is both excellent and devastating. Read it here :

http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_671

*** IMPORTANT - The Children's Commissioner survey is now open until 15th September


If you have children, and are affected by the UK's immigration rules, please please please complete the survey :

http://www.scribd.com/doc/235449747/Children-s-Commissioner-Questionnaire

The Office of the Children's Commissioner is conducting research on the impact of the rules on children with a view to, in the Children's Commissioner for England's words, 'achieve a just settlement for families who are, or who will be, divided by the implementation of these rules.'

Full instructions on where to send the survey to, as well as a letter from the Children's Commissioner for England herself, are in the link above.

* The Children's Commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the voice of the child in government. They have spoken out on the issue before, and wish to follow this up further. Please help them achieve this.

Children's Commissioners' briefing on the APPG on Migration 'Report of the Inquiry into the New Family Migration Rules' : http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_671 

Previous post : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/childrens-commissioner-questionnaire.html

Leeds family ‘could be torn apart by immigration battle’


Source :Yorkshire Evening Post

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/leeds-family-could-be-torn-apart-by-immigration-battle-1-6804161

'A couple are pleading with the Government not to “put a price on love” amid fears that immigration rules on minimum incomes will tear their young family apart. Aerial trapeze artist Natalie Stafford married South African yacht skipper Michael Engel in his home town of Cape Town, South Africa, last year. The pair, who live in South Milford near Leeds, have a 14 month old daughter Nyama Rose together. But Natalie’s unpredictable income - and tight rules governing how much UK partners must earn before their partners can be allowed to live here permanently - have left the pair in limbo...'

Please sign Natalie and Michael's petition :
http://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-theresa-may-mp-stop-my-husband-and-father-of-my-child-being-deported

*** Important repost *** 

Have your say : Reminder to those affected by family migration rules with children

http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/childrens-commissioner-questionnaire.html

As previously mentioned, the Office of the Children's Commissioners is following up on the concerns and issues by all of the campaigning over the last couple of years.

The OCC is conducting research on the impact of the rules on children with a view to, in the Children's Commissioner for England's words, 'achieve a just settlement for families who are, or who will be, divided by the implementation of these rules.'

If you're affected by family migration rules, have children, and have a few moments, please complete the survey here :
http://www.scribd.com/doc/235449747/Children-s-Commissioner-Questionnaire

Full instructions on where to send the survey to, as well as a letter from the Children's Commissioner for England herself, are in the link above.

* The Children's Commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the voice of the child in government. They have spoken out on the issue before, and wish to follow this up further. Please help them achieve this.

Children's Commissioners' briefing on the APPG on Migration 'Report of the Inquiry into the New Family Migration Rules' : http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_671

'No more hugs'


Source : Sidmouth Herald

Via : I love my foreign spouse (Facebook support group)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152176076577315

Children's Commissioner Questionnaire - have your say!

Source : Children's Commissioner

As previously mentioned, the Office of the Children's Commissioners is following up on the concerns and issues by all of the campaigning over the last couple of years.

The OCC is conducting research on the impact of the rules on children with a view to, in the Children's Commissioner for England's words, 'achieve a just settlement for families who are, or who will be, divided by the implementation of these rules.'

If you're affected by family migration rules, have children, and have a few moments, please complete the survey here :
http://www.scribd.com/doc/235449747/Children-s-Commissioner-Questionnaire

Full instructions on where to send the survey to, as well as a letter from the Children's Commissioner for England herself, are in the link above.

* The Children's Commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the voice of the child in government. They have spoken out on the issue before, and wish to follow this up further. Please help them achieve this.

Children's Commissioners' briefing on the APPG on Migration 'Report of the Inquiry into the New Family Migration Rules' : http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_671

Truth to power

Quote from British citizen affected by family division rules:

"I have just asked my son what he wants for his birthday and he said he wants to meet his dad".

Goole Times, July 2013: Heartbreak battle to reunite family

http://gooletimes.info/heartbreak-battle-to-reunite-family-p906-1.htm

This case study was referenced by Andrew Percy MP in the All-Party Parliamentary Group session during yesterday's day of action :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/a%20really%20good%20day

'A man has spoken of his painful two-year battle to bring his Cambodian wife and four-year-old daughter home to Goole. After meeting the love of his life while travelling in Cambodia in 2005, Gary Smith never could have guessed the hell that would face him over the next eight years.

'The 42-year-old, of Old Goole, has fought tirelessly just to have a regular home life with wife Chantha and daughter Aaliyah. But due to government restrictions of having to earn £18,600 per year, and his wife not being from the EU, he is facing a life without his beloved family.

'Gary, who earns over £17,500 as a refuse collector for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said this week: "This is destroying my family. I haven't seen my daughter for a year. How do you tell a four-year-old that she can't come over because we can't get a visa? I've spent a year and a half going through this hell." '

Mr. Percy has also raised the case in the adjournment debate on family migration he called last year :
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm130909/debtext/130909-0004.htm#1309102001138

Quick update from day of action... 

Thanks to those who attended. A fuller update will provided in due course, but some highlights :

From the morning All-Party Parliamentary Group session, chaired by Paul Blomfield MP :

Andrew Percy MP (Conservative) and Katy Clark MP (Labour) provide case studies of constituents affected, as well as a thoughtful contribution from the centre-right think tank Bright Blue on values, and an excellent contribution from the Lib Dem peer Lord Teverson. Very heartening to see members of all parties speaking out on this - including Conservatives.

Many great contributions from the floor as well, in particular Guy Taylor of JCWI made an excellent speech calling on politicians to make a commitment to scrapping the rules and reuniting families. Guy wants one more day of action next 9th July, and then for it to be done. 'A review of the rules would be nice, but scrapping them is what we need'. I couldn't agree more.

On the streets :

Demo outside the Home Office - a joyous occasion for solidarity, protest, friendship and laughter, and some excellent chanting (ably led by Lee )  :

'I love my foreign spouse... ' Facebook group has more photos :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/139807999382936/


The parliamentary session in the evening and the launch of the JCWI/BritCits adult dependant relatives report, chaired by Sarah Teather MP :

'You can't see the carpet' :
https://twitter.com/JCWInews/status/486932778643386368

Many great contributions, including linking the adult dependant relative issues with the rights of children. 

'Harsh, Unjust, Unnecessary' : Adult Dependant Relative Report, by JCWI with BritCits, launched 9th July 2014 :
http://www.scribd.com/doc/233262294/Adr-Report

Please read this detailed and moving report!

'I don’t want to leave my country. I will miss my home I will miss my friends and school. I want to live in my country with my whole family and friends. I really really don’t want to go to any other country. It doesn’t feel nice and I don’t want to do it.'

— British child, 7 years old

JCWI : Immigration restrictions condemn elderly parents to lonely twilight years :
http://www.jcwi.org.uk/blog/2014/07/09/immigration-restrictions-condemn-elderly-parents-lonely-twilight-years

In particular : Shadow Immigration Minister David Hanson committed to reviewing the family immigration rules should Labour win office. This follows on from the Liberal Democrats' endorsing a similar position a couple of months ago (see : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/welcome-news-liberal-democrats-endorse.html ). This is a most welcome statement and one we will certainly follow up on.

Our blogs on last year's day of action :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/a%20very%20good%20day

Immigration Restrictions Condemn Elderly Parents to Lonely Twilight years. - See more at: http://jcwi.org.uk/blog/2014/07/09/immigration-restrictions-condemn-elderly-parents-lonely-twilight-years#sthash.La2MZVi2.dpuf

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And finally...

Self-righting Fukushima dolls on display at U.K. Parliament

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/07/08/national/self-righting-fukushima-dolls-display-u-k-parliament/

 'Sixty-six traditional tumble dolls from Fukushima Prefecture are on display inside Britain’s Houses of Parliament, several of them the work of celebrity designers.

'The event was organized by a group of Fukushima expatriates living in Britain.

'They say the “okiagari-koboshi” dolls, which right themselves when tipped over, demonstrate the fortitude of the Fukushima people and illustrate Japan’s efforts to rebuild from the devastation of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.'

Spotted while passing through Parliament on the day of action. A nice reminder of (adopted) 'home' for your correspondent.

 

'I get knocked down, then I get up again' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDkVQvhZx04

Lizzie and Alexander in the Western Morning News this weekend

Via South West United Families : https://www.facebook.com/groups/442269102545299

Lizzie and Alexander's story :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/lizzie-alexander.html

Skype Papa :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/skype-papa-httpwww.html


A happy ending :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/it-is-best-christmas-present-i-could.html

More :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/lizzie