Appeal Court case on minimum salary rule

Immigration demo at High Court over minimum salary base

The High Court ruled last July that the family migration rules which require a person to earn a minimum of £18,600 before being allowed to sponsor their partner to join them in the UK, were in their totality, ‘disproportionate and unlawful’.

The Government appealed this decision and the case is being heard in the Court of Appeal today 4th March and 5th March (it is slated as a 2 day hearing). Royal Courts of Justice, Strand London.

JCWI as part of the Divided Families Campaign is organising a demonstration outside the High Court from 9.30am. We also hope to fill the courtroom inside (Courtroom 76) for the duration of the hearing.

These rules result from the Government’s pledge to cut down net migration. A pledge it is failing but in the interim destroying British families. These rule are grossly unfair; splitting families apart and forcing children to grow up in a single parent household despite having two parents. They are destroying lives and causing immense suffering. Family life should not be a privilege of the rich.

(We will provide a report on result as and when it comes)

Will be interesting to see the outcome.

It is my belief that £18600 is too high. The question is what should it be set at if it is lowered?

How about £13000 ( from last year) :

"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."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23198144

I also think, to make it fair, that postcoding should be applied as it is more expensive in some areas than others. But then it gets a bit complicated.

I do ask myself like some of you chaps must, is £18,600 salary enough for lets say two people to live on??

Are the UKBA right to insist on this as the minimum income threshold??

Some say £18600 is enough. Some say not. I guess it depends on ones lifestyle and where one lives etc etc.

I suspect this figure will go up and up as the years roll by as successive governments fail to achieve their immigration targets.

Well, I would have said that too. But this hearing might end with it going the other way. Wadaya think?

I do think there should be a income threshold but I wouldn't like to guess at a figure. As you mentioned, the amount of salary needed depends on where you live and so on but I cant help thinking that £18,600 would not give you much of a lifestyle wherever you laid your hat so to speak. Personally speaking I do not want people coming to this country then ending up on benefits, on the other hand I don't want people to be separated from their loved ones either.

For me its a bit of a poser, I cant way the financial side up with the emotional side. The financial side of me is saying the threshold minimum should be 25k then the emotional side is saying there shouldn't be a income threshold at all.

All in all I think I'm undecided, I need persuading one way or the other.

Well, Timmers, you and I both. And I must say I havent heard it put like that before and I have heard and read a lot of opinion on it. My own thoughts excepting. Finding the right figure is definitely the hard bit.

To give you a for instance of some of the irony with the ruling. I came across a male who works for the NHS who was below the income threshold. He had worked and paid taxes all his life and had been previously employed in engineering in the midlands before he was eventually made redundant before going into nursing. He was facing the possibility of not being able to get his wife into the UK on the 18600 ruling. How ironic.

Yes. I think £18600 is a bit harsh. But how much lower it should be is a difficult one.

It is a difficult one, if the threshold went down it would then be too close to the minimum wage and you might as well say that if you are working 40 hours a week then you qualify. It seems a little unfair to have one rule for the better off and one for the not so well off, love should not have financial boundaries. We all know here that people on lower incomes are an important part of the workforce, for example the nurse you mentioned in the post above. It must also be really difficult for people earning £18,600 to afford the visa fees, air tickets and so on, must be a real strain.

I cannot reach a conclusion that sits well with me, I think one of the problems I have is that I'm thinking of Filipinas on one hand then I'm thinking of the dross that I do not want in the country that I cant mention without someone taking offence

Back on the fence I go.

He found a way round it by doing loads of overtime for about 6 months. So his Mrs is here now.

Well, it seems to me to be a bit silly that a spouse is not allowed to work for quite a spell, so we insist on a minimum income to support the spouse. It is difficult to justify any figure other than the minimum wage for a 40 hour week, it seems to me. I'll be very interested in the judgement when it is read.

I have also come across opinion that is divided on the basis of what stage they are at. IE those whos wives haven't yet applied calling for lower thresholds and those whose wives are safe and sound in the UK calling for a higher threshold.

Interesting.

For the record, when can they start work after entering the UK?