UK’s visa rules ‘anti-marriage’

Immigration rules for people from outside the European Union are “tearing British families apart”, a group of MPs and peers have claimed in a report, says the BBC.

In July 2012, minimum earnings requirements were introduced.  Any British citizen who wants to sponsor their non-European spouse’s visa must be able to show they earn at least £18,600 a year, rising to £22,400 to sponsor a child, and a further £2,400 for each further child.

The inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration, which is calling for an independent review of the minimum income requirement, looked at more than 175 cases from families affected by the new rules.

Forty-five claimed their inability to meet the income threshold had led to the separation of children, including British children, from a non-EU parent.

In one case, a woman from outside Europe was separated from her British husband and two sons, including a five-month-old baby she had been breastfeeding.

The committee also heard from a number of UK sponsors in full-time employment at or above the national minimum wage who reported that they were unable to meet the income requirement.

Wider evidence suggested that 47% of the UK working population last year would fail to meet the income level to sponsor a non-European Economic Area partner, the committee said.

By the government’s own estimate, almost 18,000 British people will be prevented from being reunited with their spouse or partner in the UK every year as a result of the new rules, it added.

Baroness Hamwee, chairwoman of the inquiry and Liberal Democrat home affairs lead in the House of Lords, said the committee was “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.

Liberal Democrat APPG member Sarah Teather MP said that “whatever the objective of the policy, children shouldn’t suffer as a result”.

A Home Office spokesperson said the rules had been designed to make sure those coming to the UK to join their spouse or partner would not become a burden on the taxpayer and will be well enough supported to integrate effectively.

“High-value migrants would not be refused because their British spouse or partner was not employed,” he said.

“They can meet the income threshold by having cash savings of £62,500 or through their own private income, for example from investments. We have also introduced greater flexibility for those holding investments to liquidate them into cash in order to meet the rules.”

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today: “It is a fundamental principle that the state should honour the family and marriage.  If almost half the population would be excluded by the rules, then the rules are wrong and anti-marriage.  It is not just that children shouldn’t suffer, as Sarah Teather says, but that genuine marriages should not be put under strain.

“All that is needed is a requirement that incoming spouses will not be a burden on the tax-payer and will be prohibited from claiming social security benefits.  If that were introduced, the Home Office might well find that the bogus cases disappeared. ”

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