A very powerful piece and a shocking reminder of what is being lost here. And of course they actually don’t care about any of us, whether immigrants or not
My best friend moved back to the UK after a decade in Czech Republic, returning with his newborn and girlfriend, the miserable, grinding process they are suffering through, and the financial punishment, is ludicrous, depressing and enraging. What a way to treat our own citizens, never mind the people who want to make a life here and contribute to our culture. FFS.
In 2012 my son and his wonderful wife of one year could not remain in the UK. She is Sri Lankan. Having just graduated from university with an excellent degree, even appearing on national TV explains some of groundbreaking research she'd done, she was in a well-paid job but wasn't earning quite enough on her own account, and he, working in hospitality as a manager in a deprived area of Scotland, didn't quite hit that £18.6K threshold for supporting a foreign spouse. And their joint salaries ( more than enough to live comfortably and save money too) didn't count. It was an absolute outrage; I wrote to my MP but ...he was Danny Alexander.
(So they moved to Thailand, trained as teachers, and live in a style they could never have dreamed of in the UK..but it's split my family in two). Between the thoughtless cruelties of this vile policy and the damage done by Brexit, all to pander to a tiny group of right wing racists, the UK is dying the death of a thousand cuts. FFS, people, start a revolution!
Thank you for that, Ian. I’ve spent nearly all my adult life away from the UK (where I was born and educated), not because I disliked it, but because I wanted to ‘see the world’. I’ve been lucky enough to earn well where I live but wouldn’t do so well in the UK. My partner, OTOH, would earn plenty for us to survive on should I want to return and help out my aged mother. But it seems it’s not to be. Luckily I moved to Poland, where fighting an unjust system is in the blood, and it’s found its way into mine, so I will find a way around this stupidity. Yes, it will probably be ‘illegally’, if I have to, but this is what happens when liberal governance dies, and authoritarianism takes over - the consensus collapses and it’s every person for themselves. Terrible.
Ian, my kids wouldn’t be alive if I encountered such rules many years ago. I simply wouldn’t be here.
Back then, I moved to Australia from Brazil to study, met my husband and became and Australian citizen some later years. We had Australian kids and were brought to the UK sponsored by an employer in higher education.
Through Brazilian family roots, I am also an Italian citizen, and unfortunately as it stands I ended up with three citizenships and yet not a citizen of the country I live in.
All this background just to say that having lived in another country as an immigrant, I cannot explain to you how much I feel unwanted by the UK. Unwanted as an Italian, as a Brazilian and as an Australian. This article just validates my feelings and all the bad stuff that comes with them. In a selfish way, I’m glad I’m not alone. Thanks so much for writing and publishing it.
Agree 100% with this. It's an outrageous attack on human rights - in particular the right to "family life" guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. No wonder the Tories want to pull out of that.
My husband is American, and we did the UK immigration process for him, starting in the late 00s and successfully got him citizenship a bit before they changed the rules from joint income to sponsoring spouse's income. I would never have been able to afford to sponsor him – he's always earnt more than I do, which isn't an unusual situation to be in for a woman, really.
However, what struck me throughout the process is how many people assumed that because he's American, he could just walk straight in. The process is (or at least, was) a bit easier if you're from a Commonwealth country so people just assumed that it'd be the same for Americans. They don't realise how much effort it is to come to the UK, all the hoops you have to jump through, all the uncertainty, the way that you're made to feel insecure and like a lesser human being. I'd wager that the vast majority of people who have 'opinions' about immigration know nothing of the process or how brutal is it.
For the record, we spent 8 years in the US and I can say that their immigration process is equally as awful, if not worse. But you'd not believe the number of people who assume the same, that for a Brit it would be easy. The entire immigration debate on both sides of the Atlantic is based mostly on ignorance and prejudice. (But, well, I suppose we knew that already.)
Ohhhh yes, Ian Dunt talking Liberalism! Love it! You speak so well to it, and provide such passion and emotion for-as you mention-an often cold sounding word. I wish someone would commission 'How to be a Liberal' as a docu-series... people need some educating. The misuse of the word from both sides is an affront to reason.
I struggle to reply to this without tears I honestly cannot believe how cruel this all is. It is an affront on liberalism I fully agree we should be able to live and love with who we chose, but that salary threshold is also an affront to common decency and I fear for the already depleted care sector now which relies heavily on employees with spousal visas. I never thought this country would pass such cold and draconian legislation at this. Its a fresh low on top of many lows. If Labour want to regain empathy and humanity in this country they will abolish this when they come to power. Multiculturalism has not failed it has flourished what has failed is this vacuum of a government to understand the beauty of it.
Thank you for your beautifully rageful piece. I didn't intend to meet and marry a "foreigner" but I did a sandwich year abroad and shit happens. Now with Brexit and growing populism my residency rights feel more tenuous than ever yet I may struggle to bring my family back to the UK. I'm currently facing the likelihood of having to take a sabbatical to return to look after elderly relatives... and leave my husband to look after our small children in another country. Where is the humanity in that?
Not to mention the sexist element of this, with women likely (obviously there are exceptions) to be the lower earners and this even more or to sponsor a spouse
This is us. We were working in the EU when Brexit happened. To meet the requirements and prove we intend to live in the UK, I have to leave my husband behind and return to the house we brought our children up in and that we have owned for over 20 years and he has to fly over frequently - but thats if he gets a visa. And after 2.5 years he would have to apply for an extension. I cannot earn that salary in Cumbria and I am over 60 so that also makes it difficult. We still don't know what the amount is for savings but we are fortunate that my mum died and lived in an area with stupid house prices. It totally sucks. Wrote to the Tory MP , no reply of course. Wish I'd gone for Australian citizenship when we lived there.
Thank you, Ian, for being one of the few (only?) influential voices to be covering this topic.
You mention that the British citizen needs to work in the UK for a period before their spouse is eligible for a visa plus the time the application takes, thereby splitting the family for the duration. I believe it's 6 months for employment, but my understanding is that a self-employed person has to show *3 years* of accounts *in the UK*, past income record counting for nothing. In the case of one of my good friends, who - like yourself - can logistically work anywhere in the world, that means she and her non-UK husband would need to decide which parent their currently 5-year old would need to forgo for the equivalent of half of his life.
Another acquaintance has been married to a US citizen for 7-8 years and they still cannot live together in either country. They tried for about 5 years for the US citizen to move to the UK, but the Home Office wouldn't accept the UK citizen's tax returns showing sufficient income (i.e. HMRC's own figures) because he ran a cash-based business (clearly declared) and not enough money was going through bank accounts. And they don't meet the income requirements for the US either. So they've spent all that time shuttling between the countries as tourists - and you can imagine what Covid and lockdown did and the pressures that caused.
A very powerful piece and a shocking reminder of what is being lost here. And of course they actually don’t care about any of us, whether immigrants or not
My best friend moved back to the UK after a decade in Czech Republic, returning with his newborn and girlfriend, the miserable, grinding process they are suffering through, and the financial punishment, is ludicrous, depressing and enraging. What a way to treat our own citizens, never mind the people who want to make a life here and contribute to our culture. FFS.
In 2012 my son and his wonderful wife of one year could not remain in the UK. She is Sri Lankan. Having just graduated from university with an excellent degree, even appearing on national TV explains some of groundbreaking research she'd done, she was in a well-paid job but wasn't earning quite enough on her own account, and he, working in hospitality as a manager in a deprived area of Scotland, didn't quite hit that £18.6K threshold for supporting a foreign spouse. And their joint salaries ( more than enough to live comfortably and save money too) didn't count. It was an absolute outrage; I wrote to my MP but ...he was Danny Alexander.
(So they moved to Thailand, trained as teachers, and live in a style they could never have dreamed of in the UK..but it's split my family in two). Between the thoughtless cruelties of this vile policy and the damage done by Brexit, all to pander to a tiny group of right wing racists, the UK is dying the death of a thousand cuts. FFS, people, start a revolution!
Thank you for that, Ian. I’ve spent nearly all my adult life away from the UK (where I was born and educated), not because I disliked it, but because I wanted to ‘see the world’. I’ve been lucky enough to earn well where I live but wouldn’t do so well in the UK. My partner, OTOH, would earn plenty for us to survive on should I want to return and help out my aged mother. But it seems it’s not to be. Luckily I moved to Poland, where fighting an unjust system is in the blood, and it’s found its way into mine, so I will find a way around this stupidity. Yes, it will probably be ‘illegally’, if I have to, but this is what happens when liberal governance dies, and authoritarianism takes over - the consensus collapses and it’s every person for themselves. Terrible.
Shocking and utterly depressing. What have we become?
Ian, my kids wouldn’t be alive if I encountered such rules many years ago. I simply wouldn’t be here.
Back then, I moved to Australia from Brazil to study, met my husband and became and Australian citizen some later years. We had Australian kids and were brought to the UK sponsored by an employer in higher education.
Through Brazilian family roots, I am also an Italian citizen, and unfortunately as it stands I ended up with three citizenships and yet not a citizen of the country I live in.
All this background just to say that having lived in another country as an immigrant, I cannot explain to you how much I feel unwanted by the UK. Unwanted as an Italian, as a Brazilian and as an Australian. This article just validates my feelings and all the bad stuff that comes with them. In a selfish way, I’m glad I’m not alone. Thanks so much for writing and publishing it.
Agree 100% with this. It's an outrageous attack on human rights - in particular the right to "family life" guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. No wonder the Tories want to pull out of that.
My husband is American, and we did the UK immigration process for him, starting in the late 00s and successfully got him citizenship a bit before they changed the rules from joint income to sponsoring spouse's income. I would never have been able to afford to sponsor him – he's always earnt more than I do, which isn't an unusual situation to be in for a woman, really.
However, what struck me throughout the process is how many people assumed that because he's American, he could just walk straight in. The process is (or at least, was) a bit easier if you're from a Commonwealth country so people just assumed that it'd be the same for Americans. They don't realise how much effort it is to come to the UK, all the hoops you have to jump through, all the uncertainty, the way that you're made to feel insecure and like a lesser human being. I'd wager that the vast majority of people who have 'opinions' about immigration know nothing of the process or how brutal is it.
For the record, we spent 8 years in the US and I can say that their immigration process is equally as awful, if not worse. But you'd not believe the number of people who assume the same, that for a Brit it would be easy. The entire immigration debate on both sides of the Atlantic is based mostly on ignorance and prejudice. (But, well, I suppose we knew that already.)
Ohhhh yes, Ian Dunt talking Liberalism! Love it! You speak so well to it, and provide such passion and emotion for-as you mention-an often cold sounding word. I wish someone would commission 'How to be a Liberal' as a docu-series... people need some educating. The misuse of the word from both sides is an affront to reason.
I struggle to reply to this without tears I honestly cannot believe how cruel this all is. It is an affront on liberalism I fully agree we should be able to live and love with who we chose, but that salary threshold is also an affront to common decency and I fear for the already depleted care sector now which relies heavily on employees with spousal visas. I never thought this country would pass such cold and draconian legislation at this. Its a fresh low on top of many lows. If Labour want to regain empathy and humanity in this country they will abolish this when they come to power. Multiculturalism has not failed it has flourished what has failed is this vacuum of a government to understand the beauty of it.
Thank you for your beautifully rageful piece. I didn't intend to meet and marry a "foreigner" but I did a sandwich year abroad and shit happens. Now with Brexit and growing populism my residency rights feel more tenuous than ever yet I may struggle to bring my family back to the UK. I'm currently facing the likelihood of having to take a sabbatical to return to look after elderly relatives... and leave my husband to look after our small children in another country. Where is the humanity in that?
Not to mention the sexist element of this, with women likely (obviously there are exceptions) to be the lower earners and this even more or to sponsor a spouse
This is us. We were working in the EU when Brexit happened. To meet the requirements and prove we intend to live in the UK, I have to leave my husband behind and return to the house we brought our children up in and that we have owned for over 20 years and he has to fly over frequently - but thats if he gets a visa. And after 2.5 years he would have to apply for an extension. I cannot earn that salary in Cumbria and I am over 60 so that also makes it difficult. We still don't know what the amount is for savings but we are fortunate that my mum died and lived in an area with stupid house prices. It totally sucks. Wrote to the Tory MP , no reply of course. Wish I'd gone for Australian citizenship when we lived there.
This policy directly affects a close relative of mine (UK born) and her American husband. It is outrageously cruel.
Thank you, Ian, for being one of the few (only?) influential voices to be covering this topic.
You mention that the British citizen needs to work in the UK for a period before their spouse is eligible for a visa plus the time the application takes, thereby splitting the family for the duration. I believe it's 6 months for employment, but my understanding is that a self-employed person has to show *3 years* of accounts *in the UK*, past income record counting for nothing. In the case of one of my good friends, who - like yourself - can logistically work anywhere in the world, that means she and her non-UK husband would need to decide which parent their currently 5-year old would need to forgo for the equivalent of half of his life.
Another acquaintance has been married to a US citizen for 7-8 years and they still cannot live together in either country. They tried for about 5 years for the US citizen to move to the UK, but the Home Office wouldn't accept the UK citizen's tax returns showing sufficient income (i.e. HMRC's own figures) because he ran a cash-based business (clearly declared) and not enough money was going through bank accounts. And they don't meet the income requirements for the US either. So they've spent all that time shuttling between the countries as tourists - and you can imagine what Covid and lockdown did and the pressures that caused.
Such a powerful emotionally charged piece and so beautifully and eloquently articulated here by Ian Dunt. I keep coming back to all his pieces.