'No more hugs'


Source : Sidmouth Herald

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

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

Undercover journalists publish firsthand account of asylum seeker journey to Australia.

This is gripping :
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/magazine/the-impossible-refugee-boat-lift-to-christmas-island.html?ref=magazine&_r=1&

'An undercover journalist has detailed how he and a photographer posed as asylum seekers and took an epic journey from Afghanistan's shady currency markets to Jakarta and on to a flimsy open-decked wooden boat that delivered 57 desperate people to Christmas Island.'

Via Metafilter : http://www.metafilter.com/133886/From-Afghanistan-to-Christmas-Island

(On a similar theme, 'La Pirogue' is being premiered tomorrow - http://www.meetup.com/BritCits/events/145038692/ . 'Acclaimed at the recent Cannes Film Festivals as one of the most important works to come out of Francophone African cinema in the last year, it tells the harrowing tale of an attempted boat journey from West Africa to the Spanish territory of the Canary Islands.')

I also can't help but think of BritCits member Aisha's story as publicised here : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/aisha-my-partner-and-i-met-in-august.html .
I do understand thought that there are some positive developments with this family - and that all is well.

Ben

Via Facebook.

'My name is Ben, and my two children and I are British citizens. I was born in Prestatyn, North Wales. However, my wife is Indonesian and this has led to my current predicament. My wife’s application for a settlement visa has been put on hold as we don’t meet the current income requirement threshold. Even though I, her sponsor, have forty thousand pounds in savings and have stated my intention to secure employment upon my return to the UK.

'I have spent the last eight and half years teaching English in Indonesia and promoting the virtues of Britain and British society, including its laws, customs, diversity and sense of decency and fair play. Now upon deciding to return to my homeland to spend more time with my parents and for my children to learn and experience more about the UK I am faced with an unenviable decision. As my working visa for Indonesia will end in a few weeks I must return to the UK. My eldest child, a daughter aged six, will have to return to the UK with me as she is already enrolled in a local primary school in the town of my birth. My wife, whose visa application is on hold due to the legal case and appeal currently in the High Court will not be able to join us. Our youngest child, a son aged two, will stay with his mother. Therefore not only will husband and wife be separated also brother and sister.

'I appreciate you are a very busy man, and if you have had time to read this I am most grateful. I do not expect a solution from you. However, I would appreciate it if you had any advice for me on what to do next. As you can imagine this is a very traumatic and stressful time for my wife, our children and myself. If my wife’s application is refused solely because we do not meet the income threshold requirement, do I decide to return the UK permanently with my daughter but without my wife and youngest son, therefore splitting up a happy and loving family. Or do I decide to return if it’s possible to Indonesia never to be able to live in the country of my birth again and therefore be denied the right to spend time with and help my parents as they grow older. Both of these decisions are abhorrent to me, and I wonder why I am forced to choose between my country and parents and my wife and children. Is it such a crime to fall in love with someone from another country?

'I started part-time work at the age of 13 and since I started full time employment in 1995 I have never received or requested any help from the state in regards to unemployment or housing benefit. I have always paid my own way without recourse to public funds. I left the UK in 2005 to teach in Indonesia, a country I knew very little about and didn’t know the language. In the last eight years, I have risen from Teacher to Head Teacher and then to Director of Studies in a busy and successful private language school. I fell in love and married and we were blessed with two lovely children. During this time I have supported my wife and children without any government help. However, I must say that throughout my stay in Indonesia, the British consulate in Jakarta have been extremely helpful especially when I had to register my children’s births.

'I do not intend to ever ask for unemployment or housing benefit upon my return to the UK as this goes against the ethos I was brought up with as a child, that one must work hard and pay one’s own way in life. I would be willing to sign any document that the UK Border Agency would like to produce waiving my right to unemployment or housing benefit, if this would placate their worries and enable my wife and youngest child to join me and my daughter in the UK.

'I fully understand that there are rules that must be abided by, but surely common sense would dictate that after looking at my personal history that I am not the sort of person who plans to sponge off the state. Surely, someone who can make a successful life in a foreign country where he had to learn the customs and language from scratch, would be able to replicate that in his home country where he is familiar with all and has support from family. My parents live in a property that is paid for and are willing for my family and I to stay as long as is necessary.

'I hope that common sense and decency will prevail and that my family will not be split up and that we will be allowed the right to enjoy a family life like any other UK family. Surely, that is the least to ask for and be granted.'

Emma

“I am in despair. My family has been kept apart for many years, despite playing by the rules...which the government keeps changing.”

Emma is a British citizen. She met her future husband in Indonesia in 2001. She returned to Indonesia in 2002 and they stayed together before Emma came back to the UK.

They kept in touch via post and email over the next seven months, before Emma returned to Indonesia to marry her husband.

Her husband applied for a UK visa, allowing him to move here with his new wife, following which the couple moved here, and had a daughter and son. Both Emma and her husband worked in the UK, without claiming a penny in benefits. This was in 2002.

In 2007, the family decided to try living in Indonesia. They set up their own business there. However, some time later, they decided to return to the UK, where Emma felt that she could find better work.

However, they were in for a shock. Emma’s husband’s returning residence visa was refused as he’d been outside the UK for over two months in a two-year period. The British Embassy in Jakarta advised the couple to apply for a ‘returning visitor visa’ as they were still within the rules. But they were in for another shock!

This visa was refused, wasting time and money. They were subsequently advised to apply for a spouse visa – costing £800. This too was refused, on grounds of Emma (the sponsor) not having a job in the UK.

The immigration officer advised them in the refusal letter that if Emma were to return to the UK and make provisions for her husband to return – get a job, and a house adequate for family life in the UK – she would be able to make a successful visa application for her husband.

Emma returned to the UK with her two children, arranged accommodation, settled the kids into school and started job hunting. This meant, unfortunately, that she was juggling childcare and associated costs, effectively as a single mother, making it incredibly difficult to secure full-time employment, despite securing job interviews!

It was ironic, because if her husband was allowed to be with her, the family’s child care problems
would cease to exist, as the couple could have organised their time to work and care for their little family without having to claim any benefits.

In fact, Emma did everything in her power to avoid becoming a burden on the State. She set herself up as an entrepreneur with her own freelance business, working from home. In desperation, she wrote to her local MP explaining the situation, expecting some help from a person paid to represent his constituents. The MP’s reply was unhelpful, merely expressing his sympathy for their situation and stating that even another MP had had his wife’s visa refused entry to the UK – difficult for everyone!

Emma then wrote to the Prime Minister, receiving a standard letter expressing his sympathy, and enclosing the immigration rules! As if she didn’t already know them!

She was featured on the front page of the local newspaper – which had initially contacted her about a mural she had produced for the school, but were subsequently more interested in her family situation.

People stopped Emma in the street asking her how she was coping. Like many members of the general public, they couldn’t believe her story – ‘But you are married!’ – and they could not believe how, at this stage, she had been apart from her husband – and the kids from their father – for three long years.

Emma’s husband came into some money in April 2012 and applied yet again for a visa, only for it to be refused yet again – this time on the grounds he hadn’t done his English test. They were aware he had to do this test in due course, but the Embassy in Jakarta had informed him he could do it in the UK. They lost another £820. Yet more time and more money lost..yet more heartbreak.

Emma contacted a lawyer who told her the couple couldn’t appeal as it’s now a requirement to pass an approved English test pre-visa application. The fact that they had been incorrectly informed by a British Embassy cut no ice – so hard-working Brits are forced to donate money to UKBA because of mistakes of UK government employees.

Emma’s husband did his English test on July 20th 2012. They were still waiting for the result at the end of September. More time passed, more money lost. And, brutally, the government changed the immigration rules yet again… .

Now, Emma has to be earning £18,600 – on top of whatever her husband earns – if the family is to be reunited. The rule changes were announced in June, and introduced in July – hardly enough time to
prepare.

As of today, Emma is in despair. The family has been kept apart for many years, despite playing by the rules. What hope is there for them?

The government has behaved appallingly. One part of the government (the Embassy) incorrectly advised Emma on the rules. Yet they are prepared to take her money for each application, in a manner which would make a lowlife street conman proud.

Another part of the government (the UKBA) introduces rules so arcane that, within a matter of weeks, they would have made Kafka proud – indeed, rules so complex that even MPs getting paid £100,000 have difficulty grasping the key concepts and locating all the hidden annexes.

The new rules were introduced by means of ‘secondary legislation’ – meaning the House of Commons didn’t even get to debate them, and doubtless many politicians remain unaware of all the intricate details!

Rob

“They rejected the spouse application because of a technicality, knowing I would not meet the income criteria under the new rules, in another attempt to extort more money.”

Rob is a British professional musician, with a first class degree in music, and has taught music and performed at concerts. Rob has an eight-year-old son and lives in a detached house in Huddersfield. Rob has worked hard for everything he has and hasn’t received help from the state in the form of benefits.

However, Rob is not rich.

Rob fell in love with an Indonesian woman, and married her. They believe they are each other’s soulmate. They made vows to each other, with God as their witness, to be together, for richer and poorer.

Rob is a 'standard Brit', never having needed to worry about the UK immigration system. In battling for a spouse visa application, however, he realised how bureaucratic the process is, and indeed how unfair and weighted towards the rich it is - given the application fees, which quickly pile up.

Rob and his wife applied for a spouse visa on June 26th, weeks before what he terms the new rules came in. They submitted accounts for three years (he is self-employed – not rich but better off than many), bank statements, originals and copies, everything as requested ... no stone was left unturned.

For over two months, the message from the Embassy was ‘Application under process at the British Embassy’, and then, in early September, they received an email asking her to take a SELT English test.

The message in the email indicated that if she did not submit this within seven days her visa would be rejected. Despite the short notice, the managed it and this was submitted on time as well.

About a month later, they received a message saying the application was ready for collection; however, it was refused because of the English test. This struck Rob as bizarre as his wife’s English is fantastic.

Delving further into it, the authorities said she had passed the reading, writing and listening requirements but had not submitted the speaking part.

Although they put in an appeal, called a lawyer and asked what to do, they were advised that the appeal would probably be rejected; and applying for a new visa would fall under the new rules requiring submission of another £900 fee.

Rob was bemused, surely the authorities could just have said, ‘Hey your application is ok, but you just need to do the speaking test, we'll give you another week’? Instead they rejected the application because of a technicality, knowing Rob would be unlikely to meet the income criteria, in yet another attempt to - as he sees it - extort more money.

Rob’s uncle fought in Burma in WW2, fighting the Japanese for the UK. He himself has worked hard and paid his taxes. His great uncle was just a name tag when he came back from France in WW1. His great-grandfather died from the repercussions of WWI, also fighting for the UK.

Is this the UK that his family went to war for?

Rob now very much has to come to terms with the fact that he will need to sell his house in the UK and relocate himself and his son to Indonesia.

Another plus towards the immigration target but another loss for Britain, our economy and our people.