b2b

Absolutely! Well said. Many other countries have much stricter criteria for immigrants than the UK has. Those other countries adjust their criteria based on what skills they need. Each government owes a duty to its citizens in implementing schemes which minimize the likely burden an immigrant will pose, from many perspectives including crime and financial. My only criticism of the proposal is that it's long overdue, but do we really need people from (what some would describe as) backward countries when we have enough backward people of our own?!

Mummy in the foothills

These are "people of your own" British citizens with long standing marriages and British citizen children who want to move to UK Not random foreigners.

jp2e

Thats what I was planning to do but unfortunately my husband has to jump through lots of hoops to transfer his paramedic quals to the UK and the time that will take means that if we apply before June it will make our application much weaker, as neither of us will have a job line-up. What do you mean by risking an appeal?

roaringmouse

You can request that the visa is post-dated by up to 3 months from the decision date, if that helps at all. So for example, if the decision to grant the visa is made on 10th April, the valid from date would be 10th July (the earliest the visa holder can enter the UK on that visa).

englishguygoinghome

I would expect that starting the process of transfering his qualification should be sufficient. We were lucky that we could show sufficient savings for a downpayment on a mortgage and a suitable earning potential based on my CV, UK degree and current earnings. I would have thought a qualified paramedic and working spouse should have sufficient earning potential under the current rules.

By 'risk an appeal' I meant that if you apply and are illegally rejected like we were the process takes around 12-15 months together the visa. Personally I would still try now, you have 3 possibilities - get the visa awarded, get rejected and appeal under the current rules, get rejected and apply again later under new rules.

englishguygoinghome

Why bother? If you are applying for ILE based on 4 years of marriage then you have 27 months to take the KOL anyway and you can do that when visiting

jp2e

how long is the visa valid for? and can you get an extension if for some reason you can't get there in time or do you have to re-apply?

jp2e

do you mind me asking why you were rejected? we don't have any savings and probably won't have jobs lined-up before we leave... but both i and the kids are UKC so hopefully that will go in our favor.

englishguygoinghome

We were rejected for two reasons:

1 - I did not have a job lined up and had not handed in my notice here. The reason given was that they were not convinced of MY intent to return to the UK.I had simply written a letter of support stating I intended to move to the UK and was about to start looking for jobs.
2 - My wife did not provide a recognised language qualification as we were applying under part b of rule 281(i) based on 4+ years marriage.

The appeals judge ruled:
1 - 'his expression of intent in support of the application fully supported this criteria and needed no additional evidence'
2 - after quoting rule 282(c): 'the refusal was therefore not in accordance with the rules'

fulwood

Im sorry if I am misunderstanding this but... is it going to be that much more difficult for UK born citizent to return to their homeland? I never thoughts I'd hear day where a citizen and her family could not return or put many obstacles in her way..

englishguygoinghome

Nope - no misunderstanding

If you look through the consultation and the narative provided before each of the questions then the storyline which appears is that they are concerned about the number of people coming from the indian subcontinent as spouses. The rules allow for two categories of people to sponsor spouses with no differentiattion - those who are settled in the UK and citizens. Anyone who has been married and living together abroad for 4 years currently has an almost automatic right to settlement as a spouse - also for both citizens AND those who are settled in the UK.

Now that inplies two things which are a little too politically incorrect for the government to say or to incorporate directly into the rules.
1) There are people who are settledd, lived abroad for more than 2 years and didn]t lose their settlement - ie we aren't enforcing the current rules properly
2) There are people who came to the UK, obtained citizenship and are now bringing in spouses from the sub-continent who do not integrate into society and are effectively not wanted.

What gets my goat is that the changes being implemented will affect a far broader spectrum of people. The current rules DO proivide for citizens to be treated differently based upon how they got their citizenship - currently thoughit is only those who are citizens by descent who are disadvantaged. The rules also don't ever treat citizens differently from those who are settled except for where children are born abroad.

manny1980

Yes unfortunately what you said is correct...the underlying intentions is to make it more challenging for a UK citizen (whether born or naturalized) to bring in their foreign spouse.

The purpose, on paper, is to make it difficult for scam marriages as well as discourage UK citizens to marry foreign spouse. But in reality it is simply to control the rising population as well as stop the abuse by a few immigrants abusing the generous benefits policy in the UK as well as 'trouble caused by some, all due to lack of any desire to integrate into the British culture (most specifically Pakistanis and Bangladeshis i.e people from Muslim dominated countries, people from other developing nations such as China, India, Nepal and other nations are in general fine, no problem)...sadly the evidence of the problem is obvious in the current affairs. What I said is not 'politically incorrect' or with intentions to offend anyone but, in my view, simply commonsense. I myself am not a Brit by birth but believe in integration and respect for the country one adapt as their own. That, from my personal experience, is a key to happiness in such situations

Unfortunately UK Govt hands are tied when it comes to having any say in the influx of immigrants from within Europe which has resulted in a large number of Eastern Europeans literally flooding into the UK and under-cutting the wages for many professions. Instead of leaving the EU membership (the right thing to do in such circumstances) politicians probably have some agenda to stay in even though it is causing so much loss to the UK economy. So the only means Govt can have any say in immigration is to target non-EU immigrants. But its also fairly obvious, in my view, they are not doing this because it matters so much personally to themselves but simply because it helps them win votes as its a legitimate issue for UK or any other country under the same circumstances.

According to the new rules to be introduced, any rich foreign spouse should have a very smooth passage to the country and that, in my opinion, is not correct as the financial requirement should be increased from current levels to something more reasonable but not ridiculous proposal of 26K which is what is been currently considered. The most important reason to give visa should always be based on legitimacy of the relationship between the UK citizen and their foreign spouse.

brissybee

So, from what I understand... after living in Australia for decades, I can return to live in the UK (with no income and my Australian born young adult child who has no income) no problem...

...but if we want my Australian husband, of six years, to join us, he can't unless I can afford to support him...

(which I can't because he is the Masters degree qualified main bread-winner.)

Is this right?

manny1980

If both you and your husband have sufficient savings, I believe under the current rules he should be able to come considering you both appeared to be married for a long time. But, yes...the new rules look to be very harsh...I still have a strong feeling that savings will not be discarded and if that is the case then anyone with good amount of savings would be able to sponsor their foreign spouse...again these are all speculations as we do not know what they are going to implement...

brissybee

I wonder if net proceeds from Aussie house sale will be adequate savings?