£18,600 ($30,900) is the amount the British government has decided that citizens must earn in order to bring a non-EEA spouse into the country. The price increases steeply to £22,400 ($37,200) if a couple have a non-EEA son or daughter and a further £2,400 ($4,000) for each additional child. Families that can't pay, regardless of how high the foreign spouse's income is, are forced to relocate overseas or see their children raised without a parent. If a British citizen is unemployed, they can apply for a visa for their spouse if they have cash savings of £62,000 ($103,000) in the bank for more than six months, something beyond the reach of most in the country.
This is, of course, the government defending Tory family values - ensuring wives and husbands and children are split up.
Meanwhile , the Independent reports on the tragic case of one pregnant immigrant applicant who rather than run foul of the so-called “health-tourism” restrictions for fear she would be turned down for a visa. She developed complications with her pregnancy and her baby had died in the womb but she could not afford the cost of £2,500 for having the dead foetus artificially induced. Any unpaid NHS debt of a £1,000 leads automatically leads to a visa refusal.
Many patients from overseas are now being deterred from seeking medical help because of the new rules. A "very worried" clinician at a hospital in London's East End had reported that psychiatric patients - some considered a potential risk to themselves and to others - were "too frightened" to seek treatment.
This is the heartless world of immigration law.
As a post-script also in the Independent is the story of a Grammy-nominated classical musician was detained for seven hours at Birmingham airport and deported him before finally allowing him back into the country the following day to perform. He was also questioned and fingerprinted by Border Force officials and kept in a short-term holding facility run by Tascor, the private security firm he described as “the creepy, vague, Orwellian detention subcontractor [HM Border Force] use to keep people awake in brightly lit rooms filled with tearstained children’s toys and assorted religious texts". On his Facebook page, Carpenter said: “HM Immigration in Birmingham were totally unaware of the laws governing Permitted Paid Engagement - the three words artists entering the UK really need to know (in addition to Only Go Heathrow).”
This is, of course, the government defending Tory family values - ensuring wives and husbands and children are split up.
Meanwhile , the Independent reports on the tragic case of one pregnant immigrant applicant who rather than run foul of the so-called “health-tourism” restrictions for fear she would be turned down for a visa. She developed complications with her pregnancy and her baby had died in the womb but she could not afford the cost of £2,500 for having the dead foetus artificially induced. Any unpaid NHS debt of a £1,000 leads automatically leads to a visa refusal.
Many patients from overseas are now being deterred from seeking medical help because of the new rules. A "very worried" clinician at a hospital in London's East End had reported that psychiatric patients - some considered a potential risk to themselves and to others - were "too frightened" to seek treatment.
This is the heartless world of immigration law.
As a post-script also in the Independent is the story of a Grammy-nominated classical musician was detained for seven hours at Birmingham airport and deported him before finally allowing him back into the country the following day to perform. He was also questioned and fingerprinted by Border Force officials and kept in a short-term holding facility run by Tascor, the private security firm he described as “the creepy, vague, Orwellian detention subcontractor [HM Border Force] use to keep people awake in brightly lit rooms filled with tearstained children’s toys and assorted religious texts". On his Facebook page, Carpenter said: “HM Immigration in Birmingham were totally unaware of the laws governing Permitted Paid Engagement - the three words artists entering the UK really need to know (in addition to Only Go Heathrow).”
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