Nathan’s story

I am a 42 year old full blooded Englishman who’s grandparents played active roles during WWII in the RAF. Unfortunately my grandfathers have passed away along with one of my grandmas though my remaining 91 year old grandmother is as strong as an ox and still has the humour of a young woman!!

I was given the opportunity to work overseas at the young age of 22 and have seen, lived & worked in most countries the average UK citizen can only dream about. I have been very fortunate to see a lot of the world and also broaden my mind with all the different cultures I have been involved with.

That being said, being tired of living in rented accommodation for the past 20 years we made the decision to move back to my home country at the beginning of this year with my Thai wife of 13 years marriage and our 12 year old son who is also a British Citizen and currently studying in my former UK Secondary School we have been hit by the mighty UKBA and our governments ‘so called’ immigration policies!

Being completely naive to the current immigration situation I applied for the spouse visa on behalf of my wife in January and quite frankly made a complete mess and kissed goodbye to approximately 1000GBP application costs. Bearing in mind that directly after Xmas 2013 we enrolled our son into his current UK school thinking that we would follow soon after.

I then sought professional advice whom advised me to make a fresh application, so to avoid the risk of a 2nd rejection we applied for only a visit visa which was rejected by the UKBA Abu Dhabi within 48 hours as the case officer ‘assumed’ due to the rejection of the spouse visa that my wife would overstay and remain in the UK illegally!!! How absurd and who gives this case officer the power to call my wife an untrustworthy person?

My wife has held 2 previous visit visas, both of which were honoured as per the immigration requirements. We have never even been asked for a meeting to prove that we are a real family??

I have rented my grandmas house for the past 6 months and shall have completed the purchase in October, I have full time employment and earn an above average salary, my wife has private medical insurance and quite frankly we need nothing from the UK government only permission for my wife to remain living under my roof taking care of our son whilst I continue with my career which unfortunately means spending several weeks away from my family.

We now find my 60+ year old mother & father taking care of my son and our pet dog for the past 8 months whilst this mess is ongoing. All of our furniture has been shipped from the Middle East to the UK. Our local MP Sir Peter Tapsell after 3 separate meetings performed a U-turn via letter to our lawyer suggesting that ‘the boy should be educated in either the fathers place of work or mothers country of residence!!! Our son is an Englishman and has every right to be educated in his country, he also has every right as a human being to have his mother with him during his studies!

I am currently based in Saudi Arabia (not a nice place for a 12 year old boy) and my wife is staying alone in Thailand (also not the best place to be at the moment with the poor political situation) which leaves me only to ask the UKBA if I/we are not welcome in both my and my sons own country then could they advise as to where we can live and will they pay the travel costs for my family to visit us including my 91 year old grandma who loves to see my wife and remembers her name every time!

Whilst on this rant I note that any EU citizen is free to come to my country and also can bring along their spouse who may not be from within the EU and they need only to show a marriage certificate and a passport. No other questions, formalities or documents are required and the visa will more than likely be issued free of charge, within 10 days and cannot be refused??????

I feel I am a second-class citizen in my own country and totally disgusted by how I/we as a family are being treat.

The world is a mess at the moment with everybody killing each other yet the UKBA has split my family thus stopping us from living our normal lives together as a family in my own country!!

I see from your website that I am not alone and feel extremely content with getting my story out there.

Kind regards,

Nathan

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