Future Uk Immigration Policy

[phutoie2]

Article in today's online Daily Telegraph. Its only at leaked letter stage so far, so may never see the light of day.

http://www.telegraph...-crackdown.html

[billd766]

That means that I can never take my wife to live in the UK as the minmum income requirements far exceed my pensions.

However my son need not worry as he has dual nationality and should be exempt.

Still. no matter as Thailand is a far nicer place to live than the UK.

[chiang mai]

So any Brit that wants to take his/her Thai wife/husband back to live in the UK must have a minimum annual salary of GBP 25K, where the couple have children this increases by around GBP12k per child - on the surface that all sounds half way reasonable, except when you look at the issue from a pensioners perspective. Brits who married Thai's say ten years ago, grew older and decided to spend their final years together in the UK, may be in difficulty under this plan.

[VisasPlus]

This is not new news. It was discussed in the forum last year, and earlier this year. I had expected the new requirements to come in next month, but it looks like they are delayed for some reason. Maybe there is, rightly, some opposition. My own view is that if the minimum income requirement is introduced, then it will be contested in the courts, and the government will lose. That may, however, take some time.

[bobrussell]

I cannot see anything wrong with requiring evidence that a returning migrant can afford to support his family. If contributions have been made to the UK in the form of taxes then support should be available.

If there has been no contribution to the UK then there should be no additional support.

That said it is not appropriate to set fixed income figures and I am sure this would be successfully challenged in court.

Perhaps a fairer thing would be to extend the 'no access to public funds' to five or even ten years.This would reduce the potential for abuse.

As members of the government have said - people have the right to marry whomever they like but don't expect the taxpayer to pay for it!

[transam]

I cannot see anything wrong with requiring evidence that a returning migrant can afford to support his family. If contributions have been made to the UK in the form of taxes then support should be available.

If there has been no contribution to the UK then there should be no additional support.

That said it is not appropriate to set fixed income figures and I am sure this would be successfully challenged in court.

Perhaps a fairer thing would be to extend the 'no access to public funds' to five or even ten years.This would reduce the potential for abuse.

As members of the government have said - people have the right to marry whomever they like but don't expect the taxpayer to pay for it!

32,000 migrants are claiming benefits. NOT immigrants, people been given permission to come and wok in UK. Why don't they send them home. Noooooooooooo, penalize the native. .

[bangkockney]

I cannot see anything wrong with requiring evidence that a returning migrant can afford to support his family. If contributions have been made to the UK in the form of taxes then support should be available.

If there has been no contribution to the UK then there should be no additional support.

That said it is not appropriate to set fixed income figures and I am sure this would be successfully challenged in court.

Perhaps a fairer thing would be to extend the 'no access to public funds' to five or even ten years.This would reduce the potential for abuse.

As members of the government have said - people have the right to marry whomever they like but don't expect the taxpayer to pay for it!

32,000 migrants are claiming benefits. NOT immigrants, people been given permission to come and wok in UK. Why don't they send them home. Noooooooooooo, penalize the native. .

What migrants? What benefits? Any non-EEA national with a UK visa for work purposes is barred from accessing public funds. They can claim contribution-based benefits which are not public funds (and so they should be able to, they've paid up their NI like everyone else).

I've seen you complain about this on more than one occasion - link to your source?

Or are you talking about EEA nationals who do not need permission to come and work in the UK?

[VisasPlus]

Here is a recent appeal determination which could possibly affect the proposed minimum income requirement. It is not to do with income per se but is an appeal against the refusal of a residence permit ( in The Netherlands) on the grounds, basically, that the applicant couldn't afford to pay for the residence permit. The applicant argued that, although the law allowed him, under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, to have the right to family life, the requirement to have to pay for a residence permit didn't give him an "effective remedy " to do so as he couldn't afford it, and this therefore violated Article 13 of the ECHR. Article 13 states:

“Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in [the] Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.”

And, therefore, Article 8 of the Convention, the right to family life, was also violated. He won the appeal.

http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2012/24.html

It would be interesting to see if the same argument can be used against the minimum income level proposal !!!!

[7by7]

32,000 migrants are claiming benefits. NOT immigrants, people been given permission to come and wok in UK. Why don't they send them home. Noooooooooooo, penalize the native. .

A previous topic on this proposal unfortunately degenerated into childish arguments and had to be closed. Therefore will members kindly restrict posts in this thread to the proposed minimum income level and if they do wish to make ill informed comments about what benefits immigrants to the UK, wherever they may be from, can or cannot claim then do so elsewhere.

Thank you.

[farmerfred]

I must have missed something in doing our fiancee visa application- I didn't realize there was a minimum of £13700. My P60 for April 2012 shows £15,974, however strictly I earn around £10500 the rest being overtime. Earnings are low due to it being a family farming business with 'perks'. Hopefully the visa will go through OK. How set in stone is the £13,700 threshold anyhow?

[7by7]

There is currently no minimum income threshold. This is merely a proposal which the government may or may not bring in.

[farmerfred]

That's what I thought, 7by7. So why is there this talk of almost doubling the "current threshold of £13,700"? Or is this a guide figure?

[7by7]

Mention of a current figure in the Telegraph article is wrong; there is no current figure.

Unless they mean the current proposed figure. To be honest, I can't remember what that is.

[VisasPlus]

I think they are probably using the "benefit" figures that an ECO might currently use to compare income against.

[farmerfred]

Apologies for bringing this up again but how would this new minimum earnings rule affect people who have come on a fiance(e) visa (sponsored by a person earning <25,700) to the UK before June and are then applying for settlement (after marriage) after June?

Edited April 11, 2012 by farmerfred

[7by7]

A good question, and I wish I knew the answer!

At present this is still a proposal, so whether it will be implemented in, before or after June or indeed at all is anyone's guess.

From what I recall from UKBA sources (not the confusing and somewhat inaccurate press reporting) the requirement will apply at the initial out of country stage, not for later in UK leave to remain applications. But we will have to wait for any official announcement when (if) this proposal actually becomes a rule.

[farmerfred]

Slightly unnerving when you hear about these things when in the midst of an application, but can't worry until there's a definite ruling. However it is nice to be able to set out a plan for the future! I found the Migration Advisory Committee's report published November 2011: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/workingwithus/mac/family-migration-route/family-migration-route.pdf?view=Binary

I see it isn't all that newer news after all,

[TommoPhysicist]

Some men might find not being able to bring their wife into the UK, but only their children a bonus.

It will certainly maximise their benefit claims.

'Immigration made me a single parent family' is like money in the bank.

[AngryParent]

I know some are in favour of clamp downs but 37,000 per year is a lot of money (for a small family) especially with the current economic climate.

It is more than the national average and more than the government defines a person needs to live on.

Sad news if implemented.