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is in (see link above) and includes data per quarter, with information about applications made, processed, refused, withdrawn, and lapsed.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.

Divided families in Saudi Arabia: Tougher rules for Saudi men marrying foreign women

Source :Al-Arabiya

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2014/08/05/Tougher-rules-for-Saudi-men-marrying-foreign-women-.html

'Saudi men wishing to marry foreigners now face tougher regulations. A report in Makkah daily quoted Makkah Police Director Maj. Gen. Assaf al-Qurashi as saying that Saudi men wanting to marry foreign women should first obtain the consent of the government and submit marriage applications through official channels... The official said Saudi men have been prohibited from marrying expatriate women from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Chad and Myanmar.'

Feminist writer Mona Eltahawy tweets : Emirati widows & divorcees told can't remarry without consent of a male guardian – often their own sons http://bit.ly/1scOpNV

Support Ahad and Anum

https://twitter.com/RefugeeAction tweets :
Just read about the @EastonCowboys cricket team's campaign to stop their teammate being deported. Support them here: http://bit.ly/1nTFJGH

The Easton Cowboys page:  http://eastoncowboys.org.uk/support-ahad-and-anum-rizvi/ 

'We are campaigning to stop one of our cricket players Syed Ahad Rizvi and his family being ‘removed’ from the country. The family are seeking asylum after their extended family and community in Pakistan were  threatened by the militant groups Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which are linked with the Taliban.

'Ahad and Anum were being held at immigration removal centres, however they have now been released back to their family while the they fight to get their asylum claims to a judicial review.

'The family’s lawyer has summarised the case:

'Some of you may have heard of the predicament of one of our players, Ahad Rizvi. Ahad’s father came to the UK lawfully. He was then lawfully joined by Ahad and the rest of his family from Pakistan where they are a minority. Their extended family has suffered kidnapping, torture and murder and they have suffered threats, harassment and attempted kidnapping. Several months after the arrival in the UK they received information that made their return to Pakistan extremely dangerous. They did not overstay their visa or simply abscond as many people do. They went to solicitors and made a proper application for asylum in the UK. Unfortunately, the family has been let down on a number of fronts and all of their legal avenues have been exhausted. They have no family in Pakistan. Their extended family has long since left and are in Canada, the US, Dubai and Iran. Law and order in Pakistan are fragile and victims receive very little protection if at all...'

Sign the petition :
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/theresa-may-stop-the-deportation-of-easton-cowboys-cricketer-ahad-rizvi-and-his-sister-anum-rizvi-return-them-to-their-family-in-fishponds-bristol

Stop the deportation of Easton Cowboys Cricketer Ahad Rizvi and his sister Anum Rizvi. Return them to their family in Fishponds Bristol.

Support the Facebook page :
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Ahad-and-Anum/1484706438409036

'Bristol cricket team Easton Cowboys help Ahad and Anum Rizvi win asylum battle' :
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-cricket-team-Easton-Cowboys-help-siblings/story-21123608-detail/story.html

'Cricket Club continues fight to keep teens in country' :
http://www.itv.com/news/west/update/2014-05-21/cricket-club-continues-fight-to-keep-teens-in-country/

The Danish experience and the Swedish model

Marriage without Borders :
http://www.aegteskabudengraenser.dk/forum/viewforum.php?f=17&sid=a39fb9a96b08149a2fac87cf2bacdcf7

An interesting group - which was set up in direct response to Denmark's draconian family migration laws, a little over 10 years ago. They campaign for the rights of Danish citizens and residents for family unification.

Today I learned about the 'Swedish model' - whereby those with non-EEA spouses or family members would live in Malmo, Sweden, and commute, at regular intervals, across the bridge to Copenhagen, Denmark, as a way to exercise EU rights. A situation where those affected would form lasting friendships sharing the commute across the 'bridge of love' between the two countries. Where districts of Copenhagen are full of cars with Swedish numberplates.

(They could of course use Surinder Singh, but this has been downplayed in the Danish public discourse so is less well known. Plus, the commute from Malmo to Copenhagen is really no harder than commuting from Essex or Kent to London).

Family upheaval :
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=RytterFamily

Denmark and the 'combined attachment requirement' - the requirement which divides Danish families :
http://migrantforum.org.uk/love-knows-no-borders-for-love-or-country/

'Due to their subjective nature, ‘attachment’ tests in particular leave the door wide open to discriminatory interpretations. It is perhaps no coincidence that they come down hardest on couples with family or cultural ties in another country. This would have a huge impact for members of ethnic minority communities in the UK, particularly if they wished to marry someone from their ancestral homeland.'

Apparently the British government was considering an attachment requirement, based on the Danish model, as part of their proposals for the 9th July 2012 rule changes. Bad as the rules are, they could have been worse.

'In other areas, requirements set the bar for success exceptionally high in Denmark, compared to most. Yet high pass rates (e.g. of family reunions, citizenship tests) are often not interpreted as signs of success, but of the failure to design the right requirements.' :
http://www.mipex.eu/denmark

There are lessons to be learned for British campaigners from the Danish experience, for sure!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistanis_in_Denmark

Aneela

“I hope the rules change so families can stop being split up.”

Aneela is a British citizen, born and bred in the UK.

She has been a single parent raising a beautiful little boy on her own for the last six years. After her divorce Aneela had vowed she would never marry again; love, she decided, wasn’t for her.

However, on holiday in Pakistan in 2012, staying with her nan and cousins, she met her now husband during an Eid celebration. Aneela had actually met him many times before, but never spoken to him.

They then met for every day of Aneela’s stay in Pakistan. He acted as Aneela’s tour guide, showing her sites in Pakistan she would not have been able to go to alone. Aneela extended her one month stay by another two weeks to prolong their time together, and then extended it yet again.

It was soon clear to Aneela and her family that what had started as a friendship was now developing into something much more serious. Aneela’s family was not keen. They thought things were being rushed and tried to keep the couple apart. However, love knows no boundaries. Aneela married the man she loved in secret. In him seeing the good role model and father she wanted for her son, as well as a good husband for herself.

Aneela was risking the displeasure of her family with this relationship, but she knew in her bones this was the man who made her family complete.

She returned to the UK looking for a job paying over the required £18,600. However it took six months to do so, and in that time Aneela found herself disowned by her family. Her husband was being told by all and sundry that he could do better than Aneela, a divorced single mother.

However the couple stuck by each other. Aneela returned to Pakistan where they had an official marriage ceremony with her in-laws present. To Aneela’s surprise and pleasure, her in-laws have accepted her and her son, and they speak on the phone every day.

Now Aneela works two jobs to make ends meet, with Aneela’s sister and her friends helping out with babysitting.

Aneela desperately hopes the immigration rules change so families can stop being separated.

Sarwat

“As a doctor, I spend my life looking after other people’s parents and grandparents..yet I’m being told I can’t look after my own mother.”

Dr Sarwat is a British citizen and a doctor working on a geriatrics ward in an NHS hospital. She looks after old people…providing her patients with the best care possible at a time when they need support the most. As she helps other people’s elderly parents and grandparents, the one person she is unable to help is her own mother.

The one person she regrets not being able to look after, hold the hand of, have a cup of tea with, support and see on a daily basis, is her own mother living alone in Pakistan.

Here is someone who spends her life looking after our aged, and we are denying her the right to look after the one person who gave her life.

Dr Sarwat is intelligent. She understands the rules now make it impossible for her to have her mother live with her…to have her mother live with her in the UK.

She is intelligent. She understands the rules are forcing her to choose between her home country, albeit adopted, and her parent.

She will in all likelihood make the right choice. But at what cost to our country, our people, our patients and our beloved NHS?

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BMA : Family migration rules lack basic 'common sense'.

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The latest version of the BritCits pack, with even more stories, is now online here :
http://www.scribd.com/doc/149987423/BritCits-June-2013

Aisha

'My partner and I met in August 2005, in Birmingham.  We were in our early twenties - young love.

'He's Afghan, from Wardak. It's a dangerous area - the Taliban cause a lot of problems.

'We were never apart. He lived in Birmingham, I lived in Nottingham, but he would come here to visit and I would go there. He was an asylum seeker - he started to see people bing deported. He was afraid.

'He moved to Manchester to live with his cousin. But nothing was going to stop us from loving each other. He kept moving around, living with members of his extended family. He survived.

'I was working as a carer, full-time, living with my grandparents who brought me up as their own. I never knew my mother properly, but they looked after me.

'I became pregnant. Sadly I had a miscarriage. But I became pregnant again and we had a son.

'He said he wanted to look after me - I'm a man, and it should be that way. I'm an Afghan.

'His mother became really sick, in Afghanistan. She begged him to come home - she hadn't seen him since he left, and she'd cry, thinking that she would die, never having seen him.

'In 2010 he applied to go home to Afghanistan. I begged him not to do it, for our sake, but I knew how he felt about me not knowing my mum properly. So in 2011 I relented - I let him volunteer to go home.

'He left the UK the day after Eid, 2011.

'I went to Pakistan in January 2012, without our son. I saw my husband - he'd lost weight, and so so depressed. I was desperate to make an application for my husband and...

'SNAP! The rules changed, just like that! Right in front of us... and now I can't bring him home, because I don't meet the income requirements.

'Well, a lot has happened since then. The Taliban thought that he was working for the soldiers because they heard him talking to me on the phone in English. They shoot at him. He's scared of the special forces too - they have been kidnapping people his age, saying they are Taliban. He's caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea.

'He's got money on his head. He's not safe in Afghanistan. He hides from them in Kabul and in Pakistan too, but it's so hard there (he can't get a hotel room because he doesn't have a Pakistani id card). When I went to visit, the police robbed us as every checkpoint, because they thought I was rich because I came from England. It was horrible - so much hatred. We ended up staying in a filthy room with cockroaches and lizards.

'Our son came back to England with a rash all over, and blood spots. But he was so happy to be with his father!

'We've been together for 8 1/2 years, and we're still trying to stay together. The Foreign Office advice is that no British citizen should enter Afghanistan - it's too dangerous. But my husband is facing this, in his own country.

'He was a right to a family life here. But we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

'I'm so worried that he will be killed. I cry so much.

'What the government is doing is so wrong.

'From a desperate mother and a desperate wife.

Maliha

“My crime - I fell in love and exercised my right to do so.”

Maliha is a British citizen who met her now husband, Bilal, in March 2011, in Dubai.

Maliha was in Dubai for work, and in the process met Bilal through mutual friends. Almost instantly, as in the movies, love blossomed.

Maliha was initially concerned about the 6 year age gap - Bilal is younger than she is - but Bilal was so "with it" and mature, that this concern quickly faded. She extended her time in Dubai to continue to be with Bilal.

However, commitments intervened and Maliha ever too soon had to return to the UK.

They kept in touch through Skype, whatsapp and Facebook and spent countless hours talking over the phone. Each minute apart was like a life sentence.

Maliha returned to Dubai in July 2011 to spend more time with Bilal. They had an amazing three weeks together. However, the double impact of the Middle Eastern summer combined with the constant exposure o air conditioning to escape from the heat wreaked havoc with Maliha’s asthma, and so she was forced to return to the UK.

Both Maliha and Bilal spoke to their families about their love and desire to be married. Both their families were against the relationship, for various reasons, including their different cultural backgrounds – Bilal is a Pathan and Maliha a grandchild of an Indian migrant who moved to Pakistan during the India-Pakistan partition. Yes a reason that seems nonsensical to many of our generation, but one nonetheless that their families held (and incidentally, one that this government appears to also uphold given the £18,600 - £62,500 price on love they have put!).

Maliha and Bilal – in a modern Romeo & Juliet – continued their love affair in secret; in May 2012 they decided enough was enough and so decided to elope. "Oh the shame" said their parents; however, presented with a marriage certificate they had no choice but to accept the relationship which had been recognised both by religious leaders and the government.

Bizarrely, Bilal – holding a good job in Dubai - was refused a visit visa to the UK. The couple since have been caught in the £18,600 net, due to missing the application deadling by a measly six days.

Maliha has never claimed welfare benefits – indeed, not even the ones she has been entitled to. The "no recourse to public funds" rule from day one suits her just fine as she believes there are more needy people who deserve benefits. However, she deserves to spend her life in the same country as the person she loves.

To Maliha, being in the UK is important. It’s where her parents are – it’s where her mum who is disabled is. It’s where her friends, family, life are. It’s where her home is.

Given she doesn’t claim benefits herself, given her spouse would not qualify for any benefits, she
can’t help but wonder why the ridiculously high financial requirement? In today’s financial climate this new law is only an excuse to put people down and screams of a class system.

All she wants is to have a proper married life with her husband. To be with him.

What will the end for this modern day Romeo and Juliet be? If David Cameron has his way, this love story will also end in tragedy.

Naila

“This government will be remembered as directly and indirectly attacking the most vulnerable in society....”

Naila is a British citizen living in Bradford.

She got married last year on April 29th and had to wait until she turned 21 to apply for a spouse visa. As she didn’t have a job in the UK, she moved to Pakistan to live with her husband there, rather than spend the time immediately after her wedding living apart.

Naila is British. She was unable to adjust to life in Pakistan – the culture, expectations and rights of women are very different to what she is used to. So she returned to the UK.

She is now working full time in a newsagent's, and has been doing so for the past three months, but then the rules came in requiring her to earn a salary of £18,600 for at least six months.

So now she has wait even longer until she can apply for a visa. Under the new rules her right to live happily with her husband has been taken away from her. It seems to Naila that now, in order for British person to marry someone from outside the UK, you have to be as rich as a politician.

Naila insists her husband is very hard working; he owns a sports shop in Pakistan; and they intend that ,when he is in the UK, he will also work very hard here to support Naila so that they can live happy life.

There is no way he will just sit back and do nothing – he would not qualify for benefits so that’s not an issue either.

Naila has been married for nearly 16 months and still has not been able to apply for her husband’s visa.

The new rules for Naila and others in her position are unrealistic and unachievable. They are just causing pain, misery and heartbreak across our country.