Our family is completely broken. Thank you UK government, well done! If only you had let Dancy into the UK in the first place probably none of this would havehappened – Clyde and she (and my husband and myself) would have had so much less stress – and stress is a huge contributory factor to other expensive health problems...
A few weeks ago, I met Clyde and his mother, Joyce, at the All Party Parliamentary Group inquiry on the effects of the new rules ( http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/blog/2013/03/parliamentary-inquiry-family-migration-update-and-next-steps ).
Because of the rules, Clyde lives in Belgium to qualify for family reunion (he caught the Eurostar just after the meeting).
The story, from Clyde's mother's perspective, is here : http://www.scribd.com/doc/130872886/Clyde-and-Xudan2
Clyde's own story is below :
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'I am a British citizen from a family that has roots of over 500 years in the UK (we know this due to my mother's passion for genealogy).
'All people in genuine loving relationships just want to be with their families. The new laws from the 9th July are preventing this.
'5 years ago, while working abroad, I met my future wife. We have been in a loving relationship ever since. I myself have spent 2 years living and working in China in order to be with her.
'We were married in the summer of 2011, after which we naively decided it would be a good time to invite her to the UK to meet my family and learn more about British culture. At that time my grandmother (an 88 year old British citizen who had hardly left the UK in her life) was desperate to meet my wife, knowing that she didn't have much longer left herself.
'We applied for a family visit visa, but were shocked and hurt when we heard the news that the visa had been rejected, not because of a problem with the paperwork, but due to the fact that we were married! The UKBA didn't trust that she would leave after her visa expired (something totally against our family principles).
'We had to get an immigration lawyer involved at considerable expense, and after an appeal, we were given a reduced length visa (half the allowed 6 months). We were so happy to finally have Xudan come over and my grandmother was so happy when they met that she cried.
'Unfortunately this happiness didn't last, as after only 3 weeks together my grandmother died. The time together that was denied us by the UKBA can never be recovered.
'In January 2012, we started preparing to make an application for a settlement visa to allow my wife to stay longer in the UK. She's a qualified Chinese teacher, a skill in high demand in the modern world. Due to the volume of paperwork involved, and logistical difficulties obtaining it, it was August before we were ready to submit our 300-page document. Unfortunately we missed getting our application in before the new and inhumane laws came into force on the 9th July 2012.
'Despite having an annual income equivalent to £21,000, and being owner of my own property, we were rejected for financial reasons, mainly being that as I was a teacher on short-term contracts, I could not guarantee my income for a long time into the future (like one year).
'We have made an appeal and are now waiting, possibly for a year or more without any information about how long it is likely to take.
'The stress and isolation is unbearable. Being unable to live any longer with the uncertainties. I have had no choice but to leave the UK and move to Belgium, in the hope that I can get a European visa for my wife. I have had to leave my property, my job and my life in the UK. I feel like I have been exiled by the government, and if I go to China I won't be able to earn enough to ever make the financial targets, so will never be able to move back.
'My day-to-day life feels unreal to me, I’m married, but in the last 12 months have only been able to see my wife for 6 weeks in total. The loneliness and instability has got to a stage where it has caused deep depression, and I am unable to sleep at night. Let down, exiled, and facing a future of uncertainty, this means that I have lost a good part of my life, which should have been a happy time for a newly wed couple starting their life together.
'The rules are being enforced with absolute strictness and no leniency, no consideration of individual circumstances is made, as can be seen by the way that third party support from my parents was denied. Does the government understand what a family is?? We want to contribute to society, not depend on it, but we are even being denied the chance to do this. Sadly, the stress has also seriously affected my mother, who has tried everything she can to help us in a way that good families do.
'How can the government say it promotes the family when it has broken 3 generations of ours, and many more families that are in the same boat. Unless they have been through this, people cannot fully understand how the difficulty, sheer effort, and uncertainty can get into your bones and affect your life. No one who hears about our situation can believe that the government could introduce and continue to support a policy which is so damaging to genuine couples and families.'
