Category Archives: uk
British families forced to move to Europe to see their spouse or family member – VIDEO
VIDEO –
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Rooneystein is a no show for England !
Wayne Rooney suffers a nasty injury courtesy of Manchester United team-mate Phil Jones.
Wayne insisted on posting this picture to prove to England fans that he really is injured and does care about the national team, I am sure most fans would prefer that Wayne showed his commitment by showing the form he once did nine years ago at Euro 2004, he has been piss poor and a no show for England ever since.
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Surinder Singh – My video diary of my UK family exercising their EU treaty rights
In her reckless pursuit of lower immigration to the UK, Theresa May put UK citizens and settled people in a far less privileged position than EU nationals living in the UK. The rule changes Ms May implemented last year also meant that UK citizens living in other EU countries had more rights than if they lived in the UK. But thanks to a certain Mr Singh, they not only have more rights elsewhere in Europe, but they can bring them back to the UK under certain conditions. On the blogs and in the facebook groups of people affected by the family immigration rules, Surinder Singh has become a buzz word.
Surinder Singh himself was an Indian national working in Germany who married a British national who also worked there. They moved to the UK together, but the marriage broke down. Surinder was refused indefinite leave, then became an over stayer and deportation proceedings were initiated. In appealing against the proceedings it was argued that as his wife was a European citizen he should have originally been granted settlement rights, not the one year visa. In winning this case, in 1992, a legal precedent was set.
Bags
Now, twenty one years later we see people packing their bags and moving out of the UK to work in Europe and in doing so taking a major step towards reuniting their families in the UK. Dublin is a favourite, thanks to cultural similarities and a lack of language difficulties. But other destinations include in Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal.
It is a move as good as sanctioned on the UKBA website. The guidance notes on EEA family permits clearly state:
“It does not matter if the only reason the British national went to another Member State was to exercise an economic Treaty right was so that he / she could come back to the UK with his / her family members under EC law.”
Initially it was the government position that if a British citizen had left the UK ‘in order to enable his family member to acquire rights’ the Surinder Singh route would not be available. Later, in the case of Akrich, JCWI secured the rights for people who had exercised Treaty rights regardless of motive.
There is nowhere which states if there is a required minimum period one has to be exercising Treaty rights for before qualifying for an EEA visa for a non-EU family member.
Documentation
When a UK / Non-EU couple arrive at another European country, there is no requirement for them to show any documentation other than their passports and marriage / civil partnership certificate. However, in some places immigration officials are unfamiliar with the rules around exercising your Treaty Rights, it is worth having a letter outlining your intent, and quoting Directive 2004/38/ec of the European Parliament which establishes the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.
The Directive states:
“The right of all Union citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States should, if it is to be exercised under objective conditions of freedom and dignity, be also granted to their family members, irrespective of nationality.”
There’s some interesting accounts of people’s experiences and discussions cropping up on facebook and other fora. There are tips on job hunting, accommodation, thrifty living and employment and bank accounts.
Farcical
These measures are legal, sanctioned in law and have nothing underhand or sneaky about them. People have been forced to take these routes to family unity here by farcical rules introduced by a Home Secretary who is hell bent on low immigration statistics whatever the human cost involved. The people having to pursue this route are, by definition, primarily low earners and the experience is not a cheap one. It is perhaps a dramatic display of love and determination to achieve family life.
Those that go through this experience should be applauded, especially by the mainstream political parties that constantly strain to be champions of family life. The worry is that their immigration rules are forcing families to become scattered and separated which is a costly matter for society. Politicians need to develop some consistency in their policies and start to genuinely promote family life for all they claim to represent.
The EU have published a more user friendly guide for people interested in living elsewhere in Europe.
– See more at: http://www.jcwi.org.uk/blog/2013/04/19/surinder-singh-and-family-unity#sthash.ZWZ3EvTC.dpuf
In her reckless pursuit of lower immigration to the UK, Theresa May put UK citizens and settled people in a far less privileged position than EU nationals living in the UK. The rule changes Ms May implemented last year also meant that UK citizens living in other EU countries had more rights than if they lived in the UK. But thanks to a certain Mr Singh, they not only have more rights elsewhere in Europe, but they can bring them back to the UK under certain conditions. On the blogs and in the facebook groups of people affected by the family immigration rules, Surinder Singh has become a buzz word.
Surinder Singh himself was an Indian national working in Germany who married a British national who also worked there. They moved to the UK together, but the marriage broke down. Surinder was refused indefinite leave, then became an over stayer and deportation proceedings were initiated. In appealing against the proceedings it was argued that as his wife was a European citizen he should have originally been granted settlement rights, not the one year visa. In winning this case, in 1992, a legal precedent was set.
Bags
Now, twenty one years later we see people packing their bags and moving out of the UK to work in Europe and in doing so taking a major step towards reuniting their families in the UK. Dublin is a favourite, thanks to cultural similarities and a lack of language difficulties. But other destinations include in Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal.
It is a move as good as sanctioned on the UKBA website. The guidance notes on EEA family permits clearly state:
“It does not matter if the only reason the British national went to another Member State was to exercise an economic Treaty right was so that he / she could come back to the UK with his / her family members under EC law.”
Initially it was the government position that if a British citizen had left the UK ‘in order to enable his family member to acquire rights’ the Surinder Singh route would not be available. Later, in the case of Akrich, JCWI secured the rights for people who had exercised Treaty rights regardless of motive.
There is nowhere which states if there is a required minimum period one has to be exercising Treaty rights for before qualifying for an EEA visa for a non-EU family member.
Documentation
When a UK / Non-EU couple arrive at another European country, there is no requirement for them to show any documentation other than their passports and marriage / civil partnership certificate. However, in some places immigration officials are unfamiliar with the rules around exercising your Treaty Rights, it is worth having a letter outlining your intent, and quoting Directive 2004/38/ec of the European Parliament which establishes the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.
The Directive states:
“The right of all Union citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States should, if it is to be exercised under objective conditions of freedom and dignity, be also granted to their family members, irrespective of nationality.”
There’s some interesting accounts of people’s experiences and discussions cropping up on facebook and other fora. There are tips on job hunting, accommodation, thrifty living and employment and bank accounts.
Farcical
These measures are legal, sanctioned in law and have nothing underhand or sneaky about them. People have been forced to take these routes to family unity here by farcical rules introduced by a Home Secretary who is hell bent on low immigration statistics whatever the human cost involved. The people having to pursue this route are, by definition, primarily low earners and the experience is not a cheap one. It is perhaps a dramatic display of love and determination to achieve family life.
Those that go through this experience should be applauded, especially by the mainstream political parties that constantly strain to be champions of family life. The worry is that their immigration rules are forcing families to become scattered and separated which is a costly matter for society. Politicians need to develop some consistency in their policies and start to genuinely promote family life for all they claim to represent.
The EU have published a more user friendly guide for people interested in living elsewhere in Europe.
– See more at: http://www.jcwi.org.uk/blog/2013/04/19/surinder-singh-and-family-unity#sthash.ZWZ3EvTC.dpuf
Pascal Chimbonda; A man who threw his career away !
I remember when I first saw Pascal, he was flying down the wing like he had rockets for football boots, he seem to come out of nowhere and it was obvious that he would not be at Wigan for long, he then moved to Tottenham for £4.5 million,everything seemed on course to make Chimbonda the next big star of the Premier league, the richest league in the world,after showing an initial bright fire it wasn’t long before his career turned into smoke, by the time he left Tottenham they were desperate for him to go, the reports from the people inside the spurs camp was that of a man who had an attitude problem.
So when the club who forked out the best part of £5M for you don’t want you after one season, you go where all the rejects go; Sunderland on loan, Tottenham was hoping that he would maybe show a glimmer of the player he once was, in short he was average and in turn returned to his Spurs the following season.
He then slowly got passed down the league, from Blackburn to Qpr and then onto Doncaster.
The thing that stands out about this player is his lack of effort he shows once he receives a decent contract, you have to question a man who is happy to sit on the bench at so many clubs for so long, when he did show up on the pitch it seemed like he was going through the motions.
The man is now at his retirement age but he seems to have no pride or self-awareness of what he has to offer now, he has spent 95% of his career doing very little after promising brilliance, the crime with this player is that he truly did have all the tools to perform on the world stage, I find it remarkable that this man had no passion for the game, only for the dollar.
Now he is at non league Market Drayton he still seems to think that some naive club will fork out some money to pay is over inflated arse, Pascal, you have stolen an opportunity that thousands of fans would have given their right arm for, let your retirement years be your dignity years and not your blood out of a stone stage.
Total waster !
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The West Ham way ……
So with the new season nearly upon us and those dull empty Saturdays nearly a thing of the past, the question needs to be asked; what can we expect from this coming season ?
Our style seems to be topic that most media outlets love to bash us for at the moment,apparently we don’t play ”football”.
If you check the stats from last season Newcastle,Stoke,Reading played more long balls than we did,if you look at the amount of long balls attempted we are about half way down the table, but other teams don’t seem to get a bashing in the same way we do(apart from Stoke), you might say who cares what they say? but they do hold a lot of power in people’s minds.
Last season Robbie Savage dared any West Ham fan to call up to the BBC and tell him when was the last time West Ham played the West Ham way ?, what is the West Ham way ?
Well in my opinion it started in the Bobby Moore era and was last seen at West Ham in the Di Canio days,I remember a quote from Alan Curbishley who was commentating after a match, (we had just beat his Charlton team 5 – 0), he said West Ham were the second best team he had seen all season,he didn’t even try to defend his own team, he just marvelled at West Hams skill,speed and general play.
In the team that day we had the likes of Trevor Sinclair,Joe Cole, Frank Lampard,Michael Carrick and of course Paolo, three of those players went on to win several titles with their prospective clubs and if a lot of West Ham fans were honest, this was the last time West Ham played the West Ham way.
Moving into the present and we are faced with the tag of the non footballing football team, well I think a few home truths need be said, and said again! for the last decade it has been pretty hard to be a West Ham fan, it’s one thing to be beat, but to be beat without a fight really does leave a bad flavour in the mouth, to highlight this period I would have to note the Newcastle away game in the season we went down, I was in Thailand at the time of the match which meant I had to stay up until 4am to watch it on the box,to add more misery I had to catch a flight to Hong Kong at 8am that same morning, after being smashed 5 nil by them I then had an hour or so available for a nap before I needed to leave for the airport, the thing is I could not sleep, I kept thinking about the attitude of our players that night and their performance did not sit well with me.
There is one huge positive since Big Sam has arrived,the players look happy to run through brick walls for him, they look proud to wear the shirt, in turn the fans can walk a little taller and can be sure that whatever the result we will have committment from our team.
Long balls are part of our game now, but I think there is a clear difference from the crash bang wallop attitude of the Wimbledon days, to us, we play the percentages but playing this way is not necessarily a bad thing, if you eliminate a teams ability to hurt you by making sure the ball is going to drop in their danger areas rather than ours,I liken our new team to that of squad from the special forces, we are not running around like headless Rambo’s, we are calculating and powerful and at times we have been outstanding (3-1 against Chelsea) (3-0 Fulham)
I can only see us getting better this year,the biggest positive has gotta be Big Andy Carroll, the man is a monster and is exactly what we missed for the past few seasons, there are so many occasions last season that I felt sorry for the defenders he was against,you could see that redundant expression across their faces, I think this year he will help fire us to a higher place in the league and hopefully a decent cup run, we created a lot of chances last season, a confident Carroll would have converted a lot more and I’m convinced that Sam will have him firing on all cylinders this season.
Predictions for 2013/14 –
League finish – 8th
Star player – Andy Carroll
One to watch out for – Roland Rat
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UK spouse immigration rules ‘unjustified’, High Court says
UK spouse immigration rules ‘unjustified’,
High Court says
The judge said it was for the home secretary to decide if any changes should be made to the rules
UK family immigration rules are not unlawful but are “onerous… and unjustified”, the High Court has ruled.
Three claimants had challenged the new measures which set earnings thresholds for people wishing to sponsor the UK visas of spouses coming from abroad.
A judge said the court would not “strike down” the rules, but urged the home secretary to adjust them.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said the ruling proved they were “disproportionate”.
The Home Office introduced the rules in July 2012 to ease the financial burden of migration on the state.
Under the new family migration policy only British citizens, or those with refugee status, who earn at least £18,600 a year can sponsor their non-European spouse’s visa.
This rises to £22,400 for families with a child, and a further £2,400 for each extra child.
‘Sit up and listen’
The policy had been challenged on the basis that the rules were discriminatory and interfered with Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, the right to a private and family life.
The court concluded that the measures were not unlawful on the basis of discrimination, or due to a conflict with the statutory duty to regard the best interests of children while making visa decisions.
Mr Justice Blake, sitting in London, said it would not be appropriate to “strike down” the financial requirements set out in the rules – which were laid before Parliament in June 2012.
However, he said that the earnings threshold was disproportionate if combined with one of the four other requirements in the rules – for example, an inability to supplement a shortfall in income with savings, unless the savings were over £16,000.
He said that while there may be sound reasons in favour of some of the individual requirements “taken in isolation”, the combination of more than one of the five requirements of the rules was “so onerous in effect as to be an unjustified and disproportionate interference with a genuine spousal relationship”.
The judge also suggested that a more “proportionate financial requirement” might be to reduce the minimum income required of the sponsor alone to about £13,000.
In a written ruling, the judge said it would be “for the secretary of state, if she sees fit, to make such adjustments to the rules as will meet the observations of this judgement”.
The BBC’s legal affairs correspondent Clive Coleman says it is now for Mrs May to decide whether any amendments should be made to the rules to satisfy the requirements of proportionality.
The home secretary has been given permission to appeal.
‘Causing anguish’
Responding to the ruling, a Home Office spokesperson said: “Our family changes were brought in to make sure that spouses coming to live in the UK would not become reliant on the taxpayer for financial support and would be able to integrate effectively. We’re pleased that this judgment supports the basis of our approach.
“We are looking closely at the judgment and its likely impact on the minimum income threshold before we decide how to respond.
“In the meantime, where an applicant does not meet the minimum income threshold and there is no other reason to refuse it, the application will be put on hold.”
JCWI’s legal and policy director, Saira Grant, said that while she was disappointed the financial requirement rule had not been overturned, her organisation was “very pleased that the judiciary has given a clear message that £18,600 is a disproportionately high requirement”.
She said the judge’s comments represented a “clear message to (Home Secretary) Theresa May and she needs to sit up and listen”.
Ms Grant added that the judge’s suggestion of a financial requirement of about £13,000 was a “reasonable, workable figure”, but that people would still lose out.
Meanwhile, a group of MPs and Lords known as the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration has called for an independent review of the minimum income requirement.
In a review published last month, it looked at more than 175 cases from families affected by the rules.
Baroness Hamwee, chairwoman of the review and Liberal Democrat home affairs lead in the House of Lords, said the parliamentary group had been “struck by the evidence showing just how many British people have been kept apart from partners, children and elderly relatives”.
“These rules are causing anguish for families and, counter to their original objectives, may actually be costing the public purse,” she said.
The group said thousands of Britons had been unable to bring non-EU spouses to the UK since the minimum earnings requirements were introduced.
The conservatives break up another British family
By Ian Dunt
This is the story of Andy, a man who has had his family torn apart by the government. Despite being a British citizen, Andy didn’t make enough money to be able to live with his wife, so his children had to be separated from their parents. It’s not really a story about Andy – it’s about us and the kind of country we want to live in, but Andy’s story typifies it pretty well.
You will have heard of the Conservative aspiration for tax breaks for married couples. It’s in the coalition agreement and the midterm review. The government is very keen to show how pro-family it is. You will probably not have heard of the policies they impose on low-earners who happen to fall in love with someone from outside the EU. They’re a little quieter about those.
Last year, Theresa May did something fundamentally different with the immigration system. Instead of restricting the freedom of migrants coming to Britain, she restricted the rights of Brits who want to marry people from outside the EU. There was a dribble of coverage in the press, but most still don’t know that if they want to bring a foreign spouse to live with them they need to be earning £18,600. If you’ve got a kid it’s £22,400 and an additional £2,400 for each further child. Under the new system, 40% of the British working population are prevented from bringing a foreign spouse to live with them here in Britain. This, by the way, was the compromise. May wanted the income benchmark higher.
Andy fell into that category. He came back to the UK last March after a long stint in China, bringing with him his wife of six years and their two children. They had just intended to stop by for a holiday with his brother but once he got back Andy enjoyed being home. “The kids liked it,” he says. “It’s nice for the boys to be around their grandparents, to be able to eat sausage rolls and cheese and all that. I wanted to come home. The Chinese schools are pretty scary – I would have had to put them in international schools.”
Andy had also been diagnosed with deep-veined thrombosis the year before and felt more confident with British healthcare if there was another occurrence. “I’d been away from England for ten years,” he says. “I missed it terribly over the years. I’ve been to lots of countries but there comes a time in everyone’s life when you want to go home.”
This entirely natural approach to life was clear evidence of suspicious activity in the broken mindset of the UK Border Agency (UKBA). Immigration minister Mark Harper decided the family had been wrong to enter on a visitor’s visa and that they had always intended to settle here. By this point Molly was already back in China. That hadn’t been an easy choice for the family but she didn’t want to overstay her visa. They played by the rules. She had no idea that before she could return an overzealous immigration system would put a black mark next to her name, even though she’d broken no rules at all. Andy’s MP, David Laws, wrote to Harper urging a change of mind, but to no avail.
With his wife overseas, Andy now has to go through the entire spousal visa application process without her. It could rob his children of their mother for up to a year. First he needs to show UKBA six month’s worth of payslips proving his salary is above £18,500. Then he needs to twiddle his thumbs during the processing period, which can take up to four months, and hope the authorities do not complain about something irrelevant and unforeseeable, as they frequently do.
He eventually found a job paying over the requisite amount as an academic manager for a chain of language schools. Unfortunately, the job was in Cornwall, so he had to leave his three- and five-year-old children with his parents in Somerset during the working week and only visit them on weekends. This is a situation the British government has inflicted on a British family: the father in Cornwall, the mother in China, their children in Somerset. Their only contact with their mother is on Skype. Recently one of the children started calling her ‘computer mummy’.
“She’s in limbo, my kids are in limbo, I’m in limbo,” Andy says.
“My kids have lost their dad. I drive home two-and-a-half hours every Friday and then again Sunday night. I’ve bags under my eyes. No-one can believe my wife is being prevented from being with her baby boys. China has got its faults, but in terms of family they would never come between a parent and her child.”
Few Brits would have predicted that immigration laws would prevent them marrying whoever they chose, regardless of their income. “It took me by surprise,” Andy says. “When we first started thinking about staying for longer I made some inquiries about changing to a spouse visa and I was shocked. I didn’t think these rules applied to me. Other people do that, I thought.”
Then, quite suddenly, Andy breaks down in tears. “What sort of a man am I, that I can’t keep my family together?” he asks, after a long silence. “I walk around Cornwall. People are chatty here. You tell the story again and again. You feel uncomfortable. It’s weird, a man of my age being completely alone. I’m a family man, I always have been and now I’m not.”
Of course, the question isn’t what sort of a man Andy is. It’s what sort of a country we are. Our constant obsession with immigration is making this a hard, mean place; a place that splits up families so it can satisfy David Cameron’s absent-minded promise of ‘tens-of-thousands’ coming in a year.
As ever, none of this applies to the rich. Non-British millionaires can come and stay as long as they like, no questions asked except for the parameters of their wallet. Hard-working Brits earning under the average wage – the kind of ‘strivers’ George Osborne apparently has such sympathy for – aren’t even allowed to bring in the person they fall in love with.
The problem isn’t with Andy, it’s with us.
The opinions in politics.co.uk’s Comment and Analysis section are those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the website or its owners.
Stop David Cameron and Teresa May destroying UK families
This page is to make people aware that while the government are spouting the importance of family life they are destroying thousands of families throughout the UK.
In July 2012 Teresa May and David Cameron made it near impossible for the working class people of the UK to have the right to have their non EU wife or child live with them in the UK by bringing in a minimum wage threshold of £18,600.
Family migration in the UK covers 3% of immigration,for the sake of 3% Teresa May and David Cameron are willing to keep husbands and wives,parents and children apart,they face living apart for years under the new rules, meaning the likelihood is the family will break up and this government will be responsible for a lot of one parent families.
When people think about immigration to the UK they think of people coming here to claim benefits and add nothing to the system,with regards to family migration the partner is not allowed to claim any benefits for the first five years,in that time if the relationship turns out to be bogus they are sent back to their country,Teresa May fails to mention this,and fails to mention the fact that EU citizens can at a drop of hat turn up tomorrow in the UK without any connection to the UK or without any intention of adding anything to UK.
Family visa’s are being rejected by the home office for minor reasons,once the spouse has paid the best part of £1000 for the visa which is non refundable he then gets told that an appeal can take up to a year,and he will have to pay for this to,the government are putting up obstacles and changing the rules almost daily so they can keep their net migration figure down to create political credit,in the mean time thousands of UK citizens who have lived here their whole life,who may have met their spouse while working or travelling abroad are forced apart so David Cameron and Teresa May can say their figure for immigration is 3% lower.
Please add any news and stories about family migration to the UK .
Mum takes UK visa battle to Westminster – David Cameron & Teresa May attempt to break up family
A MUM who has seen her son’s family ripped apart by tough new immigration laws has been invited to speak at a key Parliamentary debate about the controversial legislation.
Gillian Davies-Nippel has seen at close quarters just how devastating fresh guidelines, put in place last summer, can be.
Her heartbroken son Kevin Allen, from Catrine, appeared in the Chronicle on December 26 as he faced up to Christmas without wife Jamie and children Tristan and Eowyn.
His fight to obtain a visa for the trio to fly them in from the USA has been a frustrating and ultimately forlorn one.
All because he wasn’t able to prove he earned £18,600 in his native Scotland.
Gillian has campaigned on his behalf and her efforts have been rewarded when she visits Westminster on January 23.
Movie Dr 