My wife and I knew each other in 2005 and we started a relationship as boyfriend girlfriend from 2006. We had our ups and downs, but we managed to get through all of them and we decided to get married in Egypt by the end of 2009. You can say a lot of things about my home country, Egypt, but when my wife applied for her residency visa, they gave it to her in one day. Why? Because she has an Egyptian husband and that was enough. We applied for her citizenship as well, they said come back in 2 years time and it should be ready. Egypt had the revolution in 2011, yet we managed to get her the citizenship no problem. We had 2 children who were born in Egypt by an Egyptian doctor and my eldest son had all his vaccinations in Egypt. But things have gone from bad to worse since 2013. We didn’t feel hopeful about staying in Egypt, so we had to take the hard choice and go to the UK. We both loved Egypt but we both knew that it wouldn’t be a good place for the asthmatic symptoms of our child.

Now i have to wait for six months to can apply for my residency, which I find it strange. My country which has all the problems in the world, still knows more than the UK how important family values are. I can understand where they are coming from, but when you already have two children I think we should get a greater priority and the UK should ease the regulations. My wife didn’t come to Egypt as a tourist, she was working there with me and we are the same age – well she’s 4 months older than me; I tease her every year that I am 4 months younger 🙂