UK families speak of visa rules pain

[livingdead]

"We need to know that you're not going to be living off benefits from day one of arriving here," the immigration minister said last year as he announced new rules to cut the number of people coming to Britain.

It is hard to imagine he had Kei Yamomoto in mind.

Kei is the Japanese husband of Marianne Bailey, a 35-year-old former senior designer for Yamaha, who now runs her own design firm. She is pregnant with Kei's baby, but her husband could be deported at any time.

They are just one of the thousands of families said to be prevented from living together in the UK because, on paper, Marianne does not earn enough to satisfy immigration officials.

"I'm giving birth in July," she says. "But they could take away my husband at any time - just pick him up."

'Ordinary person'

Rules that came into force a year ago mean any British citizen who wants to sponsor their non-European spouse's visa must be able to show they earn at least £18,600 a year, rising to £22,400 to sponsor a child.

The consequence for some has been an enforced and painful separation.

"How am I supposed to bond with my son?" asks one father. "I've only seen him twice since he was born. He's got a tooth coming through, he's turning around in his bed and I'm missing all these big events in his life."

Douglas Shillinglaw lives in Kent, 3,000 miles away from his wife and six-month-old son Ethan in Lagos, Nigeria.

Immigration officials say the £17,000 profit he made as a self-employed mortgage broker last year is not enough for him to sponsor his wife's visa.

He says he has already spent £2,000 appealing against the decision.

If an applicant wants to use their savings, rather than income, to show they have enough money to satisfy the new rules, they need £62,500.

"I'm just an ordinary person. I don't have those kind of savings." Douglas says.

"It seems like if you're middle class and you've got loads of money, then you can come in. They've got it totally wrong."

But financially better off people, like Marianne, have found themselves in a similar situation.

As well as her design company, she is a part-time university lecturer and an inventor with 20 patents to her name. She owns a number of properties and has a substantial Japanese pension, all of which, she says, takes her "well over" the £18,600 threshold.

But loopholes in the way officials assess an applicant's finances mean that three of her four sources of income are not counted. Her husband Kei faces deportation and would not be able to return to the UK for at least nine months.

"You have to have £62,500 savings in your bank account for six months before they'll count it. So even if we sold our house we wouldn't be in time for the birth," she says.

"I can't cope with a baby on my own."

..................
Rest of the story here..

BBC News - UK families speak of visa rules pain

 

[Skull and Bones]

A sorry state of affair in UK.