"I have never welcomed the weakening of family ties by politics or pressure" - Nelson Mandela.
"He who travels for love finds a thousand miles no longer than one" - Japanese proverb.
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." - Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"When people's love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change". -
David Cameron.

Friday 18 January 2013

Rob

“They rejected the spouse application because of a technicality, knowing I would not meet the income criteria under the new rules, in another attempt to extort more money.”

Rob is a British professional musician, with a first class degree in music, and has taught music and performed at concerts. Rob has an eight-year-old son and lives in a detached house in Huddersfield. Rob has worked hard for everything he has and hasn’t received help from the state in the form of benefits.

However, Rob is not rich.

Rob fell in love with an Indonesian woman, and married her. They believe they are each other’s soulmate. They made vows to each other, with God as their witness, to be together, for richer and poorer.

Rob is a 'standard Brit', never having needed to worry about the UK immigration system. In battling for a spouse visa application, however, he realised how bureaucratic the process is, and indeed how unfair and weighted towards the rich it is - given the application fees, which quickly pile up.

Rob and his wife applied for a spouse visa on June 26th, weeks before what he terms the new rules came in. They submitted accounts for three years (he is self-employed – not rich but better off than many), bank statements, originals and copies, everything as requested ... no stone was left unturned.

For over two months, the message from the Embassy was ‘Application under process at the British Embassy’, and then, in early September, they received an email asking her to take a SELT English test.

The message in the email indicated that if she did not submit this within seven days her visa would be rejected. Despite the short notice, the managed it and this was submitted on time as well.

About a month later, they received a message saying the application was ready for collection; however, it was refused because of the English test. This struck Rob as bizarre as his wife’s English is fantastic.

Delving further into it, the authorities said she had passed the reading, writing and listening requirements but had not submitted the speaking part.

Although they put in an appeal, called a lawyer and asked what to do, they were advised that the appeal would probably be rejected; and applying for a new visa would fall under the new rules requiring submission of another £900 fee.

Rob was bemused, surely the authorities could just have said, ‘Hey your application is ok, but you just need to do the speaking test, we'll give you another week’? Instead they rejected the application because of a technicality, knowing Rob would be unlikely to meet the income criteria, in yet another attempt to - as he sees it - extort more money.

Rob’s uncle fought in Burma in WW2, fighting the Japanese for the UK. He himself has worked hard and paid his taxes. His great uncle was just a name tag when he came back from France in WW1. His great-grandfather died from the repercussions of WWI, also fighting for the UK.

Is this the UK that his family went to war for?

Rob now very much has to come to terms with the fact that he will need to sell his house in the UK and relocate himself and his son to Indonesia.

Another plus towards the immigration target but another loss for Britain, our economy and our people.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Rob,

    I feel sorry for you and your wife. But lets look at poor Theresa May and her conservative colleagues. These people get bought up with lots of money, they cannot understand the simple things. Getting home on a friday with your wages, by monday you are skint with the ridiculous price of bills and food.

    I think Theresa May is a lovely woman, it's not her fault her mother and father were obviously conservative type of people. Probably had 2 seconds of sex .. no lets make it 1 second, 9 months later here pops out Theresa May, first thing they do is get a nanny to look after her, change her little nappy, as soon as the little brat can walk it's off to boarding school.

    Poor Theresa has not had the love and family connection, so from birth there is no family values. Then the cycle goes on. She meets a guy, talk about how much money they have got, i'm not even sure if they would hold hands and kiss. But they marry, have sex and pop out another conservative, then a nanny looks after it, then as soon as the brat can walk out the door, it's off to boarding school.

    So don't blame Theresa May about her non-understanding. If her father and mother love their children and do not want to be apart from them, and that a man and wife can be together for love even though they may not have much money. Theresa May and her conservative colleagues cannot understand this concept, if one of our children died we would not use it for our career for votes. But look at our leader, he did.

    So you think this is hard of me saying about poor old David? Lets get the facts straight, there are thousands of English people who cannot be with their wives or husbands, or even their children. Theresa May says these people cannot be a burden on the state, from a non-eu country. But these people cannot claim benefits anyway, one of the conditions on the Visa, they cannot claim any UK benefits.

    She blatantly lied about the immigrant and the cat.

    On TV and it's on YouTube, she said she was against Gay Marriage, but she is for it now and she is fine now if they want to adopt a child, if they can give a child a good home. And she is happy about the welfare of the child, because the welfare of children come first.

    But happy to keep a child away from their mother or father when it comes to spouse visa's.

    So basically another lie.

    They say she may be the next prime minister, or leader of the conservative party.

    How can we have someone who blatantly lies, and does not understand the very basic of family values.

    But please remember this is not poor Theresa May's fault. It's the way these people got bought up for years, so if you look at her and you feel sick, it's because you are human, but as humans you must understand why Theresa May is sick.

    Also as a British citizen you have less rights in Britain, than an EU citizen. They can bring a non-European spouse without restrictions.

    Anyway Rob, the conservatives are not against colour or race, but you are working class and you are something what they would not want to tread in.

    Rob I hope you do not need to sell your house and you manage to get your wife to England. If the courts do not get scared, they may bring down the requirements of the £18,600.

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