Appeal Court case on minimum salary rule

Not for me. I don't go for the idea of living in a seperate country than your wife. Husbands and wives live together.

Thats the downside of the Spouse Visa route. Agreed. What if you marry and she cant get the visa? When we were waiting for the wifes Spouse visa, that went through my mind.

But there are a couple of other advantages to the Spousal route.

1] That you can have a bloody good holiday in the Philippines while you are out there getting married.
2] Its a good one in terms of relations with the inlaws. In our case we had no choice as the mother in law insisted it was marriage in the Philippines.

From the beeb...

Families 'torn apart' by immigration rules on spouses



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26370397

I'm going to admit to being a natural Conservative voter (shoot me now). However, I find current immigration policy wholly disagreeable and entirely unbritish. It seems that discourse around immigration has lead to the normalisation of tighter controls. In my view, any British Citizen who can show a partnership (as in UKBA definition of partner) is genuine should have the natural right to live with that partner in the UK.

It is galling that in this day and age, we still do not have a "count them in, count them out" immigration system and that true numbers of migrants and overstayers are not known! This is what should be tackled... illegals, and it should be tackled with vigour!

The only way to achieve this would seem to be compulsory ID cards. We British had no hesitation in imposing them on Hong Kong (which had a very acute immigration problem, which ID cards solved completely) but compulsory ID cards in Britain are seen as un-British, although most of us carry a compulsory driving licence, widely used as ID.

Why UK migrants oppose minimum income req't for immigration

"Katrina (not her real name) has been living in London for eight years now. Of those years, she spent the past seven jobless and undocumented.

Her work visa expired after her first year in Britain and was not renewed, and even if she got married to a British man, she still could not get her papers. The reason: her husband does not earn enough.

An immigration policy implemented in 2012 requires a minimum income of £18,600 or almost P1.3 million a year before citizens can sponsor their spouses or families abroad to join them in the United Kingdom. Katrina’s husband, a railway welder, earns way below that.

“We are not rich. He’s not rich,” she said.

Although the odds have been against her so far, she still fears returning to the Philippines.

“My fear is that I won’t be able to go back (to the UK) and that we’d be separated. I’m afraid to start from scratch and be lonely,” Katrina said.

Other native and migrant Britons are also feeling the pinch of the minimum income requirement for immigration.

This week, some of them joined various migrants’ groups outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where the appellate court was hearing the issue. The UK Home Office is currently making an appeal for the policy after a judge earlier ruled against it.

One of those present in the demonstration was Latoya Katiti, who has two children and whose husband lives in Jamaica. Working just part-time, she knows she could not afford the income requirement to sponsor her husband’s visa.

Their application has been pending for almost two years now.

“When I think about what I’ve gone through because of this, it just upsets me,” she said, crying. “I’m so depressed. I feel so hopeless, especially when my husband cries to me that he misses me.”

Campaigners opposing the policy hope the court would rule in migrants’ favor. They said that it is putting a price tag on families’ right to be with one another.

According to Solen Mehta of the pro-immigration group BritCits, many children grow up far from their parents as a result of this.

“The policy is leading to the break-up of families. The policy is not remotely family-friendly,” she said.

Migrants’ groups believe the minimum income requirement should be lowered to match the UK minimum wage, which is currently £6.31 per hour.

This could mean a £5,000 reduction in the current requirement, according to Ruth Grove-White of the Migrants’ Rights Network.

For Guy Taylor of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, however, there should not even be an income requirement.

“Personally, I don’t think we should have a figure. I don’t think people’s love for each other and their right to be together should depend on money,” he said.

In a statement sent to ABS-CBN News, the UK Home Office said the British government welcomes migrants who would like to live and work here.

“But family life must not be established here at the taxpayer’s expense. To play a full part in British life, family migrants must be able to integrate—that means they must speak our language and pay their way,” it said.

The Home Office added: “We believe matters of public policy, including the detail of how the minimum income threshold should operate, are for the government and Parliament to determine, not the courts. We also believe the detailed requirements of the policy are proportionate to its aims. We are therefore pursuing this appeal against the judgment.”"


http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-f...grants-oppose-minimum-income-reqt-immigration

What was the outcome with those 2 days in court? I haven't seen or heard anything on it.

Judgement was reserved and will be given in two months' time.

I don't even think it needs that much to get a good handle on what's happening. If, upon entry and at the border, the passport data was recorded as well as the permitted duration of stay, and the same upon exit, we would at least know who came in and if and when they left. My understanding is that the passport scan is simply to detect known persons, and that no such recording of entry/exit is made. The e-Borders project is supposed to resolve this. But it's a disgrace that it's taken this long (go-live 2018!) for such a simple system to be implemented.

Actually, that's quite true.

The super-rich of all nations have more in common with each other than they do with their fellow-citizens. King George V, Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II were cousins. And at a more practical level, cruise lines market one, two and three star ships to one nation at a time but five star ships are marketed internationally.

What about at £18602 per annum?

Alas!

The thing that really makes me puke is the assumption that anyone with less than "£x" a year is an oik, and anyone who can afford to shop at Harrods is a model citizen.

This man would have met the £18600 threshold requirement......

Well, I used to have lunch in 'Arrods nearly every weekday, many years ago. The company I worked for, Burmah ( Castrol ) Oil, had offices right across the road. I recall buying the then newly released Eagles album, One of these Nights, in 'Arrods.

I see there are branches of 'Arrods at Gatwick Airport, now.