ON+THE+NEW+UK+FAMILY+IMMIGRATION+RULES+AND+THE+GOVERNMENT’SDENIAL+OF+BASIC+HUMAN+RIGHTS+TO+IT’S+OWN+CITIZENS.


 * __ON THE NEW__** **__UK__** **__FAMILY IMMIGRATION RULES AND THE GOVERNMENT’S__**  **__DENIAL OF BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS TO IT’S OWN CITIZENS.__**

I have put together the following information and evidence primarily for my family members to understand our situation, but it is also for anyone going through the same nightmare, who needs more information and anyone willing to listen to a British citizen’s plight being denied basic human rights by his own government.

Much of what I have learned comes from this forum and the helpful members who write there. []

__My story:__ I have been living in Thailand for the past ten years and working (officially) at a provincial University as an English teacher. My salary is rather modest, but in line with similar government teaching jobs for foreigners at 360,000.00 THB per year (approx 7,273.86 GBP) I have been living with my partner for five and a half years. We became engaged four years ago and married three years ago. My wife gave birth in April 2010 to our son Arthur. I am British, my son is British/Thai and my wife is Thai. As soon as we found my wife was pregnant we decided we would relocate to the UK when he reached three years of age for educational purposes (early public education in Thailand is bordering on the criminally negligent). Moving to the UK has become more important recently as my parents, who used to visit us in Thailand regularly, are no longer able to travel. My father simply cannot manage the flight and my mother has just had a cancerous kidney removed. She cries every time she sees her grandson on Skype. For the past three years we have been looking forward to the move to the UK. We went to the UK for a visit in the spring of 2011 and loved it. I found that I would easily be able to get enough work to take care of our needs and my wife would probably be able to out-earn me because of her previous work experience in Thailand. My parents insist we should live with them in their easily big enough three bedroom house. Earlier this week, I started the spouse visa application procedures. I have in the past few days discovered that we can possibly never return to the UK to live. My parents will possibly never see their grandson again. My son will possibly never see his grandparents again nor ever have access to education in his own country. **__Not unless, that is, we abandon his mother.__** How can this be?

__The reasons we can not return are as follows:__ In order for my wife to get a spouse visa to live with her British husband and son in the UK, I, as her sponsor would have to meet the new financial requirement. (Four months ago she would have been granted a visa without requirements)

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“Where the sponsor has been working overseas and is returning to work in the UK, there will be scope for them to count a firm, verifiable job offer or signed contract of employment to start work within three months of their return at a salary at the level required to meet the financial requirement (₤18,600 p.a.). __They must also__ demonstrate that either they are in employment overseas at the required salary level (₤18,600) at the point of application and have been so continuously for at least the previous six months or they have earned the required amount through salaried employment in the 12 months prior to the application.” 1. I do not earn enough in Thailand (equivalent to ₤7,600) to meet the financial requirements of the new immigration laws (₤18,600). 2. I would never be able to secure an ₤18,600 confirmed salaried job offer or signed contract, starting in six months, from here in Thailand, without contact or interviews. 3. I am not wealthy enough to have ₤62,000 pounds untouched saving in the bank. (The amount required to bypass the regulations. One law for the rich eh?) __So, what are my realistic options (assuming I could even manage to get a salaried position paying ₤18,600 p.a. in the current job market, with my lack of recent UK experience or training and at 48 years old?)__ 1. Abandon my wife in Thailand whilst I go to the UK with my son to find the required salaried job. Find the job and work for six months all the while taking care of my three year old son without his mother. After a separation of at least six month his mother would then have to go through the complicated visa application on her own which could take a further three months. Assuming all the conditions are met and my wife has made a perfect application without one single omission or spelling mistake the absolute minimum time our family will be split up is 9 months (Add time spent searching and applying for the said job, which let’s face it could be a very long time.) 2. Same as above but abandon my wife and child in Thailand whilst I go to the UK alone to find the required salaried job. My wife and my child would have to live with her parents in a one room house with four other people with unsanitary toilet facilities, no drinking water, live electrically cables (no earth), dangerous farm machinery, no health and safety laws and untold dangers and diseases that he will have no defense against. Every other kid in her village is maimed, blinded or injured or abused in some way. 3. Come to the UK with me wife on a visitor visa, commit a serious crime in order to be imprisoned, so my wife would be considered my sons only caregiver and so be permitted to stay. **Note:** I would not be able to bring my wife to the UK with me on a visitors visa while I find the aforementioned salaried position, as when she fulfills her obligation to return to Thailand when her visa expires she would then face being banned form applying for a visa again for ten years on the grounds that she is actually seeking to stay in the UK with her husband and child. This has actually happened. [|http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10323782#post10323782] Read forum poster Former Loawai’s third and fifth post 4. Go home using the Surinder Singh route. A backdoor method of entering the UK through another EU country where I am legally to live and work with my wife. It would mean settleing and finding work in any EU country for long enough to secure an EU family permit. However I have some trepidation about stepping off a plane in a strange European city with a slightly scared wife and a whining toddler only to find myself staying in some noisy budget accommodation with a load of dodgey characters. We would both have to roam the streets like itinerants looking for work where ever we could get it. It might be an adventure. There also seems to be some congecture that this loophole might get closed down. If it all went wrong we would find ourselves in limbo with no way back to the great job in Thailand I quit after ten years and no way to stay in the UK. **Note:** Isn't ironic though that the only way a native Englishman can take his wife into his own country is by using a route established by an Indian immigrant overstayer even though his marriage had broken down.

__Why I believe my family’s basic Human rights are being ignored by the British government:__

1. These new immigration laws have been past through the back door without any debate. 2. The laws contravene article 8 of the U N Dec of Human Rights on the right to family life. 3. These laws will be changed, but not before many families have been broken up. 4. The government has waived any right of appeal on family migration, which in itself is extremely unjust. They have also been denying applications based on slightly incorrect applications or applications where the financial requirement have not been met exactly. i.e if you are 100 below required amount you will be refused. __[]__

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__These new rules are affecting lots of families:__

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__Now get this…__ Any citizen, of any European country (other than British of course) can legally bring his or her non-European spouse (or even fiancée) into the United kingdom to live and work without any restriction. In other words (this is hypothetical, but true) an Italian (shall we say) can bring his Cambodian (shall we say) girlfriend (known each other for two months, engaged for one month, but not yet married and with no children, shall we say) into the UK where they can both settle, live, work, bring up a family and even claim benefits. I on the other hand, because I am British, even though I have a proven long term relationship and with a British passport holding child, cannot bring my wife and mother of my child to this country.

__What can be done:__

At present there are many challenges to these new rules. Eventually they will have to be overturned as they are pretty much illegal. But that will take years. There is really nothing that can be done except try to bring this situation to the attention of MPs, the media and the public in general. There are petitions and such, but the way these laws have been brought in mean the government really doesn’t have to change them.

[] Information on how to write to MPs [] MP for Brislington. (Mum you should write here) [] UK news media [] Bristol evening post [] Article on what can be done.

[] one of many organizations fighting these laws

[] Another group asking for help to build evidence of these terrible laws

[] Some more stuff on supporting the fight

__In conclusion:__

It is all rather confusing, unbelievable and downright nasty. But it has been done. This is just another example of how wealthy rulers are permitted to trample over the very lives of their subjects.

What is really galling about all this is the hypocrisy of the talk of "importance of the family" in British politics and society. In order for myself and my son to live in our own country we have to either:

1. Abondon his mother; therefore dividing the family.

2. Get my self imprisoned for any decent crime (such as attempting to steal 62000 pounds); therefore dividing the family.

3. Divorce/legally separate from my wife; therefore dividing the family.

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All this while the Cambodian girlfriend (not yet married and no kids) of an Italian guy can live, work and claim benefits in the UK without restriction.

__More reading on the new laws, what they mean and what might be done:__

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[] [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area_Family_Permit#Conditions_of_issue]

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