Melanie’s story

My name is Melanie Ebrahim, I’m a 22 year old British woman married to an Egyptian Man called Mahmoud who is 26. Mahmoud and I have been married for 2 years, we lived together in Egypt initially for 1 year, during this time I had become very sick and suffered with depression. The lifestyle here that we have in Egypt is very hard, especially with me being a foreigner with blue eyes and white skin. I was harassed every time I would leave the house, I had stones thrown at me and men trying to touch me. It became so bad that it was easier for me to stay indoors, therefore isolating myself and feeling alone. I could not drink from the water here and even bottled water made me sick. I began to not eat in fear of being unwell and spent many nights in the hospital having tests. Throughout all this time my husband stuck by my side and tried to help me the best way he could. We had not really thought about living in the Uk before but after all that I had experienced here and not being able to take it any longer we discussed about trying to apply for a spouse visa. In October 2011 I travelled back home to Birmingham to begin the spouse visa process. I knew I would have to find a job and work hard for 6 months so that I could bring my husband over with me. I found a job within 2 weeks of being home as a Shift Leader in a well known company and began work in November. I worked extremely hard up to 60 hours a week so that I could save money. I had a home for myself and my husband to stay in and support from all my family. The 7 months we spent apart were the worst days of my life, I missed him so much but i knew what I was doing was right. I had no plans to cheat the system and I worked hard to bring him over the right way. My husband passed his english test with flying colours and worked in Egypt to also try to save money so we had the best chance of being successful with our application. In June 2012 I travelled back over to Egypt to start the application, at this time the new rules were only speculation and gossip and nobody was really sure of when it would happen. We had some trouble collecting my husband’s army release paper so that he was able to travel which delayed us in the process of applying. We also was unaware that all documents had to be handed in before the 9th of July so therefore missed the closing date to apply under the old rules. This has completely ruined our lives, i now have no choice but to live in Egypt as I do not and could not earn at this present time £18,600.
I have been in Egypt now since the new rules and had to leave my job and my family in the UK to be with my husband. My health is suffering again and I am once again stuck unable to go out in fear of being harassed. I do not speak the language here so even a simple task of bringing water from the local shop is impossible for me so I am completely dependant on my husband. I beg him everyday not to go out to work in fear of being left alone. I am surrounded by so many people in a big city but have never felt more alone. We really do not have any choice but to continue our life here, my husband will never get to meet my family in person and my future children will be living a life of poverty because there mother couldn’t satisfy the UK immigration rules of earning £18,600 and I really have no idea where I go from here.

Ali’s story

My name is Ali. I am 28 and a dual British/U.S. citizen. My husband is 30 and is a U.S. citizen. Our son is 2 years old and has dual citizenship. I met my husband of 6 years in 2002 during my first term at university in the UK. I was 18, he was 20 – over on a study abroad year from America. We have been together ever since. Between 2003 and 2006 we visited back and forth, and my husband lived and worked in the UK for 6 months in my second year at university – he was on a BUNAC visa and he worked and paid taxes, we had a little flat together, it was nice. When the 6 months were up he moved back to the US, I completed my degree and then I applied for the U.S. fiancee visa (which entailed a medical screening in London and an interview at the U.S. Embassy, and a 6 month+ wait period) and moved to the U.S. to marry him in 2006.

I started graduate school in the US in 2007 – I was working towards a PhD, but after our son was born in 2010 we decided it would be better if I left with a master’s degree and completed the PhD at a later date once we had moved back to the UK. I had just got my U.S citizenship which meant we could return to the U.S, if we wanted to, but we wanted my son to grow up around my family. We decided this in February 2012. I consulted with an immigration lawyer who said that we just needed to show that we could support ourselves. She said this would be easy enough. My parents have a rental house they are going to let us live in rent-free. I have a master’s degree. My husband has worked for the same company for the last 5 years making $45,000 a year.

Then in July the rules changed. I found this out when I was over visiting family in July. I was so upset and angry at how unfair the new rules are, and how ridiculous. The savings portion is a joke. We own our own house over here in the U.S. and my husband has a 401K pension plan. We are going to rent our house out as the housing market is still not good enough to sell. I’m not sure why the government expects young couples like us to have bought a house AND have saved up $100,000 (the equivalent amount in US$ you need to move to the UK as a family without the British citizen finding a job and working at it for 6 months first – the whole 6 month waiting period makes no sense either, it just keeps families apart for longer!)

Now it doesn’t matter that we have a house to live in and a big supportive family. It doesn’t matter that we both have degrees, own our own home, and have never been on welfare or benefits. I have been staying home with my son and working part-time since I left graduate school while my husband supports us. To teach at the university-level I need to complete the PhD. To teach at the high-school/secondary school level I need to complete more training (a PGCE in the UK). There is no point doing teacher-training here if we want to move, but I don’t want to be apart from my husband while I do the PGCE in the UK. So, I have a master’s degree in U.S. History and no recent full-time employment experience, and I can’t train to be a teacher in the UK and keep my family together. I’m not sure what sort of job to go for, I just need one making the right amount of money. I’m not too hopeful about my chances of finding the right sort of job with the economy being the way it is, but we have no choice but to try as it is the only way under the new rules. My husband, meanwhile, has worked for the last five years in the same retail management job.

To move to the UK as a family I need to have a job here in the US earning $30,000 (the equivalent of the 18,600 GBP requirement) for 6 months AND a job offer lined up in the UK before we can apply for my husband’s visa. The alternative (which we are taking because the former is so ludicrous) is for my and my son to move to the UK without my husband while I look for a job earning the arbitrary amount of 18,600 GBP and then work at said job for 6 months before my husband can apply for his visa to join us. He may be able to visit us for a while as a tourist, but he will have to leave when his tourist visa runs out. If I haven’t found a job by then we will have to move back to the US as I don’t want to live apart from my husband. When we got married we said “at least we wont have to be apart again” because we had already gone through years of finishing college in our respective countries and waiting for my visa to move to the US.

We never thought it would be that difficult to move back to the UK, though I had a inkling the Conservative government might make it more difficult, and so they have. The new rules mean that my 2 year old son will have to be apart from his dad for at least a few months even in the best-case scenario that I quickly find a job. They also mean that I can’t immediately return to graduate study in the UK (had I known this in advance I may never have left the program I was in in the US). The situation must be so much more daunting for other families where, say, the British citizen wife chose to be a stay-at-home mum, or where neither partner has a degree, but it is daunting enough for us.

My family in the UK consists of my mum, stepdad, dad, four younger brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, not to mention friends, who all miss us and want us to move back. We’re going to try our best to make it work, but if I can’t find that job I guess we’ll be exiled to America, even though with the free rent and my family’s help I could be working at minimum wage, or not working, and we wouldn’t need benefits. Also, my husband would be much more likely to find a job than I am because he has been the breadwinner for the past 6 years while I was in graduate school. Under the old rules we could have moved over together and we could have both looked for work. Now, the burden is all on me, and I think the whole thing is ridiculous and discriminatory against people who happened to fall in love with someone from another country. Why even have such things as study abroad programs between UK and U.S. universities if the government is going to make it so difficult to be together if you fall in love with an American?

I also agree with some of the other testimonials that this is harder for women. Especially for women with young children. I am not sure how this law is even legal as it clearly discriminates against women who generally earn lower pay and often take time out of the workforce to look after their children.

Ali

Kevin’s story

I am 31 years old and I have a wife of five years and a son who is soon to be 1 year old.

Whilst travelling around Asia I met my wife, for the first few years we were happy to work and reside in her country with no rush to come to the UK, as I knew the job market and the economy was in a bad way I decided to spend my time living abroad off my savings until the economy picked
up back home.

I came back and could not find a job that lasted more than a few weeks, just temporary work. Eventually after six months of living without my new born child and wife, I started work in a full time job, as well as taking on a part time job to take me over the £18,600 threshold.

After speaking to specialist agent today I have found out that I will need to wait another NINE MONTHS to apply for our visa because if your job is paying less than the £18600 you need to combine both jobs over 12 months and they will not accept the 6 months worth of payslips.

This means if I wait on their new rules I will have to live without my family for more than 18 months and even then they may not approve my application. So then it could go to an appeal, which is where they make you wait up to another 8 months for a response or hearing.

By the time this is sorted my son would be 3 years old and I would have spent no more than a few months as part of his life. At present I have two jobs, my wife has a job waiting for her with a
friend of my family but we still do not qualify.

Now after hearing this news I am planning on giving up my jobs and moving to her country to teach basic English in one of the many TEFL school’s based in Asia.

I have no choice, my country of birth has attached a prison sentence to me, and taken what should have been myself and my son’s bonding time. At present I am forced to clap through Skype as a form communication with him, I cannot accept living apart any longer.

I sincerely hope that some moral person in power has a wake-up call some-day soon and sorts this mess out, until then I am forced to give up two taxable jobs to be with my family abroad.

Kevin