Cheap anti-immigration vote winner. Screw the consequences.

The daft thing is that a couple of the injustices have made the daily mail and there has been suitable outrage because it's Brits that suffer, hence my comment about it not really being an immigration issue.
Villains have escaped deportation because of the right to family life. How can it be 'right' that the family of a Brit can only be together as long as it isn't in the UK?

It's a cliché to say this but it's really not 'British' is it?

From what I had read in 2012 when they introduced this it was in part to discourage families from sending young women back to the parents home country and forcing them in to marriages then importing the new husband and then his extended family to UK. Most young women aren't earning that kind of money and many were being kept at home so did really earn anything.
I think a better rule would be for people living abroad in long term marriages (maybe over 7 years) not earning that amount or with one spouse even if it;s the non EU one is able to earn that amount. Should be allowed to settle.

I reposted the information about the petition from a thread closed by Jerseygirl, because the OP didn't use the BE forum much. I do use the forum a lot, and I thought the topic was worth discussing. After all, a substantial amount of the discussion on this forum is concerned with the rules, either meeting them, or getting round them using the Surinder Singh route.

For what it is worth, I do think that there is a possibility of getting the law changed, and it is worth signing the petition. I agree that the strength of the anti-immigration lobby (when is it ever weak?) is an obstacle, but this law affects British citizens, including members of the armed forces who have served abroad, and is manifestly illogical and unjust.

I signed the petition, and had also signed a few others on the same subject. I suspect that, in the long run, it may have some slight effect, but I wouldn't want to bet on it.

It's a shame there was nowhere to make comments. I've seen petitions before where one could do that.

I'd be tempted to write something like like "now that my Canadian wife of nearly 11 years has died I don't have this difficulty anymore. I will of course look for a replacement EU wife to bring in as the UK government will happily accept her (or him)."

That might show it for the farce it is.

The legislation was clearly aimed to prevent arranged marriages in the Asian communities of Britain. It had unintended consequences that the Mandarins drafting it never thought of.

The mandarins are lemons

The current limit it pathetically low. I am not suggesting it should be increased, but it is barely more per week than I was earning labouring in a warehouse more than 25 years ago.

Maybe they have to pay Lt Cols more than ordinary folk ?

But it is only two thousand pounds below the average UK household income.

More to the point, it is the income that has to be earned by the British citizen and ignores what could be earned by their partner, who could be potentially high earning. IMO it discriminates against British expats who are the carer or homemaker in their relationship, which category will include more women than men.

One warehouse job I had, West Kent Cold Store. When I started, the old lags told me, don't try to steal any food and take it home. If you're caught, you'll lose the job. BUT it is OK to take a Sara Lee cheesecake for lunch, but you have to eat the whole thing. I only did that once, I felt so sick all afternoon...

(Yup, I probably got wages there as well..)

Similar for me, re eating and stealing. I worked for United Biscuits (McVities, Crawfords, KP, Terry's). They used to supply packets from broken boxes to eat in the break room, so we didn't need to eat whole packets.

That number is distorted for several reasons, not least by households where there is only one working adult, by those claiming benefits or on pensions, and in most of those cases, they won't be importing a spouse.

I have just been to check the uk.gov tax data, and £18,000 is the 40th percentile for individual income in the UK for 2012-13. And then the income requirement for spouse visa is reduced by savings. So surely most people have some savings, or equity in a house, or even some pension savings they could cash-in, to further reduce the income requirement? But say what you like, the current threshold is not a high bar to reach.

The average full-time wage in the area I live in is £20,280. So, most people in Devon find that bar too high.

"Average" is a tricky concept. Remember mean and median ? remember how one mnillionaire's income will distort the pattern ?