Sara, Ryan, and Lilly

'My American husband, Ryan, and I married in 2006. We had our daughter in 2008.

'We tried a long distance relationship for a while trying to sort out our visa, but realised quickly that we would struggle with the bureaucracy involved.

'Ryan came to the UK just before the birth of our daughter, Lilly. My grandmother who raised me was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, so he stayed to support me. After struggling on with his father living with us, his father died of a heart attack.

'The police kept harassing Ryan for his passport. Frightened that he would be deported, he went back to the US.

'It's now been almost 2 years since we have seen each other because we are struggling to get the money up.

'We were young and stupid when we got married and we didn't do things the right way, but even so we will never get the money up that they ask. I can't even get a job here in England as no one wants to employ a 'single mother' as I can't work late/early or weekends due to childcare.

'The government are keeping me on benefits when I could be working full time.

'All I want is my husband, my daughter cries because she misses her daddy. We got married without even knowing what we were getting into, we had no idea about visa and income requirements, we just assumed you got married and lived happily ever after.

'In February it will be the second year since we have seen my husband. We have looked at many different routes but because of our situation it's not going to work for us. My husband is struggling to get an education but trying very hard. We plan that he will train to get his truck driving licence and that I'll move away from my family and everything I know to live with him.

'He has no family in America as they are either dead or estranged, so I'll be moving away from all my family to be with him.

'I will do it because I love him, but it's unfair that I've been forced into poverty with out him.

'I'm living in a one bedroom flat with my 5 year old daughter which has cockroaches and mold and it's making us ill.

'One day we'll be together, I'll never give up on him. For now I'll deal with the bad situation I've been dealt with and try to turn it around.'

Open letter to the Children's Commissioner, from someone affected by the family division rules

Per a previous post ( http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/u-rgent-message-from-migrants-rights.html ), the Children's Commissioner for England has requested stories from families affected by these devastating family division rules. 

Here is one family's story, shared with permission.

Get in touch with her at childrens.commissioner@childrenscommissioner.gsi.gov.uk

Dear Maggie Atkinson;

I received your information through a group that I am involved in trying to fight the immigration rules.  My name is John Cobb and I am an English citizen currently living in Texas, in the US.  I want to tell you my story and explain why we need your help changing these unfair rules.

I was born in England, as was my father, and his parents.  I came to the US 7 years ago.  I met my wife, Hayley in 2009 and married her in 2011.  In 2012 we had a beautiful baby boy who we call Ryan in honor of my late mother. I also have a 17 year old daughter from a previous relationship who is still in England named Lauren.  Lauren comes to visit us whenever possible and she and Ryan adore each other.  Hayley and I always intended to move back to the UK but it was only once we had the baby that we began to seriously look into the process and realized how difficult this move would be.  Our son, Ryan has a British passport and we foolishly believed once we had that the hard part was over.

You see, I'm an unskilled laborer.  In England I worked for Royal Mail for 10 years and I enjoyed my time there and hope to return to that position once I am finally home again.  In America I work part time for a bank.  Hayley, my wife, is the primary wage earner here.  She works as a supervisor in a corporate office for JP Morgan Chase & Co.  We had hoped she would be able to use her reputation with the bank to find a new position in England.  Hayley works during the day while I take care of our son, and I work in the evenings.  We make enough to support ourselves without government assistance and have no reason to believe we wouldn't be able to find work in England.  However, the amount of money that must be in savings to qualify to bypass the minimum wage requirement is simply impossible.

To meet the minimum wage requirement to bring my family to England I would have to leave Texas, find a job (Possibly two depending on the area of the country we decide to settle in and the wages available there) and wait for 6 months to qualify to apply for a visa for my wife.  I would expect to be away from my family for at least 9 months, and from what we are finding out the more we research it will probably be a lot longer than that.

If I want to return to the place of my birth, the only place I have ever considered home I have to make an impossible decision: When do I leave my family?  Do I leave now, when Ryan is too young to ask where his Daddy is and miss his first words, his first explorations into art, his discoveries on what he is capable of?  Do I leave when Ryan is older, when his memory will have the ability to miss me, to wonder where I went and why I'm not there to kiss him each morning? If I have to force my wife to live as a single parent do I do it now while so much of our energy is spent worrying over teething and ear infections, or do I do it later when she'll need help preparing him for school and the life ahead?

I hope you understand the difficulty here.  Of course neither of those options is a good choice for my son.  What he needs is his mother and father together, working to raise him to be the man we both know he can be.  What he needs is a stable home near his sister in a good community with people who know him and care for him.  However, what he's got right now is a father who is not meant to be an American but is no longer allowed to be British.

Please help us.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

---

No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.
 - Magna Carta.

John & Hayley

“As a British citizen, my country wants me to earn the right to live with my family..”

John is a British citizen born & raised in Edgware, now residing in Texas, USA. John has been living with Hayley, an American, since June 2009. They both agreed that their long term plans involved moving to England and raising their children here.

They married in August 2011 and welcomed their beautiful son, Ryan, a year later. Now they thought the time was right to move to England, wishing Ryan to be close to his 17 year old half sister, cousins, aunt and uncle who all live here. They want their son to have as good an education as possible, with English schools consistently ranked higher than their American counterparts. Indeed, they perceive English schools to be safer as well.

Hayley has been working for four years at an investment bank, as an associate level supervisor. It is possible she could obtain a transfer to the corporate office in London if there were no visa issues.

John is a labourer. He has 10 years experience working for Royal Mail in a job he enjoyed and hopes to return to it but positions that meet the minimum wage requirements for a partner visa do not come easily. Neither Hayley nor John are eyeing our streets paved with gold.

Hayley is the higher wage earner in their family, earning about $10,000 more per year than John. They are aware it will likely be the same in England. She enjoys her work, and is very good at it. She is confident that she will be able to support the family if she were allowed to become a member of our community.




The way the rules currently stand it seems that this couple has three choices.

a) Raise Ryan in America, while saving to meet the financial criteria - a process that will take years.
b) Risk everything and enter England on a visitor visa while John applies for a job satisfying the income criteria, then leave the country in order to apply for a spouse visa. Risky and costly.
c) Break up the family up for at least 15 months - Hayley remains in Texas working and raising Ryan on her own. John works 2 jobs to meet the wage requirements, after a year they would again be in the position of hoping and praying our application would be approved.

Ryan is 6 months old. Right now John works evenings and Hayley works during the day. They share childminding duties around their jobs. Neither can imagine the pain it would cause John to miss Ryan’s first steps and first words because the land where John was born, the only place he has ever called home, wants him to earn the right to raise his family there.

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