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How the government breaks up British Families: "Skype Mummy" in the press

10 replies

TheBitchInTheHouse · 18/01/2013 11:31

Hello there

Some of you may remember the "Skype Mummy" video I posted a month or two ago.

The family is in the same situation, nothing has changed for now as it will take a long time to get them back together, and the future is uncertain, but their story has reached the press.

The national press does not seem at all interested in the couples and families affected, and recently Mark Harper refused to acknowledge the impact of this enforced single parenthood and the effect it is having on young families.

Here's the video (for those who missed it)



The family's news story is here.

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2013/01/18/comment-how-the-government-breaks-up-british-families

There's also a website/blog with the stories of many other families who have been affected, and an explanation of the rules, plus what people can do if they are affected.

www.britcits.com/


I really hope these awful rules are changed and a more just system put in place. Campaigners are hearing of many hardworking families being split up and children living apart from a loving parent with no end in sight to the problem.


All the Best

TBITH
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niceguy2 · 18/01/2013 16:36

I have every sympathy for the family mentioned. But the rules have been brought in as a result of the general public's (wrong) perception that immigrants are coming over here to steal our jobs.

There's been huge pressure to tighten up the rules and here we are.

The press aren't interested because the majority of people want stricter immigration controls and this story goes against that.

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TheBitchInTheHouse · 18/01/2013 20:26

Thanks NiceGuy2 for the sympathy!

The Public seriously needs to wise up. When challenged about this, the Home Secretary and Immigration Minister dishonestly claim that this is to "protect" the taxpayer and to encourage integration. Dishonest because non-eu spouses who settle here have no recourse to public funds for five years. Treating families like this does not encourage anyone to integrate. Someone who is married to a British citizen will integrate just by living their normal life, they are married to a Brit FFS! but after going through this they will be alienated. Thousands of children are being brought up in single parent households even though their parents want to be together and want to care for their children together. If their partners were allowed to join them, then one or both parents could work..So these policies actually cost the taxpayer. Also the majority of people affect that I know on the campaign are taxpayers, either that or they desperatly want to be taxpayers but are prevented from working by this impossible situation.

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SnakePlisskensMum · 22/01/2013 19:56

My friend is in this position. She fell in live with an American. It's a true, genuine relationship and they have a child. He is trying to get over, is skilled and very willing to work. His visa has been denied because she doesn't earn enough. He has a job interview to go to, if he ever gets the chance to be with his family. The job will go soon, they won't wait forever. In the mean time, his baby doesn't get to know his daddy. Can only the rich fall in love!?

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Xenia · 23/01/2013 11:31

It certainly brings a lot of problems, including the spouse when you break up stealing the child back home and international custody issues, if people end up with someone very different from themselves.

Could the English friend though not try to go to America instead if she is such a low earner she cannot support a husband in the UK? Or could she get a better job?

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Clytaemnestra · 23/01/2013 12:48

I don't really get the original story. Why can't the kids stay in china with the mum until they're all ready to come over. Why can't they live with the dad in Cornwall?

Turning up with the wife on a visitor's visa, then deciding, out of the blue they're not going back? Didn't he have a job in China, need to go back there for a few months to tie up loose ends and make plans to emigrate back as a family? That doesn't seem realistic to me and it doesn't surprise me the immigration people were suspicious.

It also irritated me that he seems to be coming back because he wants to use the nhs for his newly discovered illness and the free schools for his kids rather than have to put them in expensive international schools in China and pay for medical assistance. Despite the fact he hasn't been paying into the tax system for ten years, he's trotting back to exercise his god given right as a Brit to enjoy all these free services, and now he's moaning that he's been told he needs to get a job to support his family, rather than just getting everything for free. The article says he needs to find a job earning 18k in order for her to come over, and that is presented as a terrible injustice. If they were saying 50k then I would think they would have a point but 18k is not a high wage - well below average.

I think the point in the article when he broke down in tears because he didn't think the rules applied to him was pretty indicative of his attitude in general.

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TheBitchInTheHouse · 27/01/2013 02:07

SnakePlisskensmum

I am sorry to hear about your friend. Unfortunately there will be more and more cases like this, and before long everyone may know someone in this situation. I do hope the laws are changed before it gets to that, though

Please tell your friend that there are two Facebook groups where she can get some support

"I love my foreign Spouse2

www.facebook.com/groups/139807999382936/

and" Unite Families Fight for Love "

www.facebook.com/groups/458130764223591/

and this is a blog for campaigners :-

Britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/introduction.html

Most importantly, there is an All Party Parliamentary goup conducting an inquiry. She can submit her story to them to consider, this is a good opportunity to overturn the rules, but the deadline is 31 January.

www.appgmigration.org.uk

Please give her my best wishes. Is she on this site?

Take care.

TBITH

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SnakePlisskensMum · 27/01/2013 13:20

Thanks for the info, I will pass it on. She has considered going over there but her mother is dying painfully and is sole carer so at some point she has to make a decision. What an awful one to make. She is looking at getting another job in order to increase her salary but it means leaving her mum even longer. I'm not one to make excuses for people but I understand her predicament. She's only slightly under the limit, think its about £18k? So another job would do it. She happens to work in a low paid industry and isn't qualified to do much else. She's happy to retrain but it all takes so much time.

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TheBitchInTheHouse · 28/01/2013 14:39

SPM it must be awful going through that without her hubby here to give her emotional support.

I don't know why, if you can prove your in a genuine and subsisting relationship, the gov. can't give a temporary visa and give the spouse some time to find a job, so that both salaries may be taken into account. There must be fairer ways of doing this.

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SnakePlisskensMum · 28/01/2013 21:19

Exactly. Her husband works in the States, he's a good, honest, hardworking citizen with great references. She is exactly the same. Both will contribute to society.
She was told that if she'd had £18k sat in the bank, his visa would probably have been approved.
The company he has a job interview for will have to look elsewhere soon (he's had one interview over skype) so thats a great opportunity missed. Human Rights are not being applied to this process.

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TheBitchInTheHouse · 29/01/2013 06:26

Yes, the savings requirement part of the rules is stupid. Savings count but not the first 16K. Then you need the shortfall of 18.600 times 2.5 on top of that. Do you know anyone with more than that in the bank? I'm a relatively high earner and a diligent saver, and I have nowhere near that amount. If my husband had come in under the new rules, and I had lost my job, unless I had £62.000 in the bank my husband may have to go back to his country, and I would be left on my own with two kids trying to find a job for 18.600, and would have to hold it for six months before my husband could apply to retuern, and then wait six months or more for the process to go through... . The problem with the rules is that someone who has worked hard all their life, contributed to the UK all their working life.. AND meets the ridiculous requirements could have their family separated OR be effectively exiled abroad just for losing their job EVEN IF they found a new one within a few months...

Also they are doing nothing to "protect the taxpayer". they are turning "taxpayers" and "contributors" into "burdens" (not a word I like to use for any human being, but you get what I mean right?"

Sorry for the rant!!! I get really fired up about it all, even though I'm not directly affected, I could have been..

There's a petition that friends and family can sign. Would be really good if you could sign and share with as many ppl as possible.

www.change.org/petitions/theresa-may-new-uk-immigration-laws-are-tearing-families-apart-change-them-now

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