rebeccajo

Found the Daily Mail article. Interesting!

Home Secretary Theresa May is doubtless trying her hardest within these meddling statutory confines and legal limitations. She is clearly very much in favour of policies which foster British allegiance, encourage greater integration, and which ensure that immigrants can speak a Year-6 level of English. But her latest proposal to limit the number of non-EU nationals is arbitrary, banal and embarrassing

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...#ixzz1z9VTXKea

gmralston

I understand savings over a certain amount will be taken into account, is that right? Granted, most people won't have that amount lying around, I seem to recall circa £64000 if the sponsor didn't earn anything.

Can anyone confim this?

Bob

62.5K I think the figure people have mentioned in this thread.

BristolUK

Sadly not. I only came across it by accident. I've searched that forum using various words but it's a really busy place and there are loads and loads of results. I think I got to it from looking at someone's comment history.

I've also searched the mail and there are a few "news" reports on the subject, but I think it was a columnist who was saying how wrong the idea was.

BristolUK

Ah. I see something was found.

WEBlue

Indeed interesting! Thanks for posting this, Rebeccajo.

I've read it over 3X & it still makes me shake my head. What have we come to when the DM calls the new immigration policy "banal & embarrassing"?

Deb568

Not so. Under the old rules, if you had two children and wanted to come back to live here with your foreign partner, all you had to do is demonstrate you had £12,000 savings per year to cover the first two years. Of course, anyone who is selling a house prior to moving back would likely be able to demonstrate that, at least once their house sale had gone through. Whether or not your partner then got ILR or no recourse to public funds visa depended on how long you had been married. So if less than 2 years, the partner couldn't get ILR.

What's more, it is the British spouse who is claiming the benefits, not the foreign spouse. So, provided the foreign spouse enters on a settlement visa, the British spouse just claims for both themselves and their spouse in the claim.

Even now, a British person seeking to bring their non EEA national spouse back to Britain can avoid all these income/asset checks and simply go and live in an EEA country for a year, then come back under the rules applying to EEA nationals. that is, no income checks, no assets checks, and ILR for the spouse on arrival in the UK, provided they have obtained an EEA family permit first.

There are heaps of places in Europe, whole countries in some cases, where it is much cheaper to live than in Britain. Where $100 a week is more than enough to live on and rent the kind of place where the locals would live. Romania, for starters. Some parts of Poland, Slovakia. Even Spain is a fairly cheap place to live compared to Britain.

Deb568

Yes, I couldn't agree more. And if they are so worried about the benefits situation, why not just have a blanket restriction on people returning, e.g. no benefits claims for 12 months if you have been away for more than 12 months, or three years, say, if you have never made any NI contributions. At least then people planning to move back would have to make an effort to save up for a rainy day, in case they couldn't get a job/make enough from being self employed once they get back here.

WEBlue

You make this sound pretty simple, Deb. But I think for many of us feeling a pull to move back to the UK, uprooting the family to move to an EU country first for a year is not really an acceptable way to go. Wouldn't it be difficult to find a job if you didn't speak the language (Polish, Slovakian, Spanish, etc.). What about children needing to go to school & also not knowing the language? A family homesick for their old life in the UK would end up putting themselves through a possible financial & emotional wringer.

Or are you suggesting a sort of year-long family holiday? Have you planned such a thing? Curious as to how you see it working out in reality??

babsi

We are all different. I don't have that much of a big pull to the UK, I would be more than happy living in Europe but being a lot closer than I am now. Flights a lot cheaper, can go more, less time on the plane.

But as always where do you start?

Egon

The sad thing though, is that for many, doing a year in Europe first - at great disruption to their careers, children's education and social lives - may be their only viable option.

It's disgusting that such a huge and outlandish plan is actually one of the more likely ways to get back home.

gmralston

I am missing something here, how does a non EEA national become an EEA national in just one year? It doesn't sound right. How does this work exactly?

Bob

EU freedom of movement, you can bring your spouse over to a EU country, free and after x time, 6 or 12 months, can't remember, you can get a family permit, which allows you to move around the EU, including the UK.

That's basically very simplified version of things.

pennylessinindia

[QUOTE=Deb568;10155172]Not so. Under the old rules, if you had two children and wanted to come back to live here with your foreign partner, all you had to do is demonstrate you had £12,000 savings per year to cover the first two years. Of course, anyone who is selling a house prior to moving back would likely be able to demonstrate that, at least once their house sale had gone through. Whether or not your partner then got ILR or no recourse to public funds visa depended on how long you had been married. So if less than 2 years, the partner couldn't get ILR.

What's more, it is the British spouse who is claiming the benefits, not the foreign spouse. So, provided the foreign spouse enters on a settlement visa, the British spouse just claims for both themselves and their spouse in the claim.

Even now, a British person seeking to bring their non EEA national spouse back to Britain can avoid all these income/asset checks and simply go and live in an EEA country for a year, then come back under the rules applying to EEA nationals. that is, no income checks, no assets checks, and ILR for the spouse on arrival in the UK, provided they have obtained an EEA family permit first.

There are heaps of places in Europe, whole countries in some cases, where it is much cheaper to live than in Britain. Where $100 a week is more than enough to live on and rent the kind of place where the locals would live. Romania, for starters. Some parts of Poland, Slovakia. Even Spain is a fairly cheap place to live compared to Britain.[/QUOT
Just to be clear not ILR on arrival but Permanent residence after 5 years and the brits cit must exercising treaty rights in EEA

WEBlue

"Exercising treaty rights" in the EEA country means working for someone else, running one's own business, or attending an educational course, isn't this correct? So perhaps taking a long family holiday in the EEA country is NOT the way to do it . . . . Hence my previous question which still needs answering--how easy is it to get a job in a low cost-of-living EEA country if one has minimal knowledge of the local language? And would any children be required to attend the local school in the local language?

It strikes me this "solution" Deb has suggested would require a LOT of careful planning to undertake, not the least of which would mean the whole family should learn the language of the EEA country. Even if you're only there for 6 or 12 months before migrating to the UK, bad things can happen if you don't speak at least some of the local lingo.