As some of you may remember, I asked the Home Office a few questions last year whilst I was in the middle of a battle to get my wife her settlement visa. I was successful in my fight, but there are plenty of others out there who are still struggling with the new rules. New rules that could be illegal! I asked the Home Office: Did the home secretary or other senior official seek legal clarification on the legality of the new rules for family settlement with regards to the minimum financial requirement of £18,600.00 and how this could be affected by the Working Time Directive? And after many months I finally got an answer: So in other words, if you are a government employee and are trying to sponsor a spouse to enter the UK but earn less than the required £18,600.00 per year requirement; there is a possible legal avenue to pursue because the Home Office neglected to check this legal loophole. The Working Time Directive is one of those laws that many consider “pesky EU intervention” but it was incorporated into UK law in the late 1990s. It basically prohibits employers from making their workers working excessive hours without proper rest, although it makes provisions for overtime where employees strictly consent to the extra work, it also makes it explicitly clear that there can be no detriment for not agreeing to work over 48 hours per week. I wonder if there is someone out there, employed by the government who would never be able to meet the requirements without working well in excess of the 48 hour a week limit? For the details of the Freedom of Information request, see this link.
Almost certainly. But the Government may well respond " get yourself a promoton!" Whilst in fact this is a silly answer, because impractical for most people, it will not seem so.
All it would take is a full time cleaner on minimum wage to take this through the tribunals and the government could end up with egg on their faces.
I suspect the way that this will be beaten is if someone eventually takes the government to the ECHR under the "Right to a family life" rule. Hopefully someone will do this one day and this outrageous law will be overturned. I saw a report recently of a guy who was due to be deported and won his right to stay here in the UK under the "right to family life" because he had a long-term girlfriend here. You could argue this is misuse and foreign drug dealers SHOULD be deported, but it does show that this avenue is there. My wife is currently on FLR, but who can tell what will happen in the future. If I lose my job for some reason then can they really chuck my wife out of the country? What if we have kids by then? Can they really force the mother of a UK citizen's kids out of the country even if the kids were born here and she was here legally? I'm sure that some issues like this will start to turn up in the future. The problem is, of course, if you don't have the money to support your spouse then can you afford to take the government to the ECHR? I just don't see how they can get away with this long term. Who are they to say that I - who sits around in an office all day doing as little as possible - am allowed to have my spouse here but some guy who works his arse off all day cleaning windows but earns less then me doesn't have that right?
Interesting question and one I have tried to find the answer to over the last 2 years. And despite all the expertise kicking around on various websites I never did see an answer. But someone I know did hear a radio program recently where this topic was broached and the answer from a minister was No. if the child was born here to a mother here on a spouse visa or FLR then no. However this was on a Manx radio program and related to the Isle of Man. This was kind of what I suspected anyway.
If your wife had children here (born to a British father, in Britain) then they are British citizens and with it EU citizens. She could be potentially deported, however... If you did a runner and left her to raise these British and EU citizens, then EU law forbids the foreign national from being denied a visa on the grounds that it would be detrimental to the EU citizen who needs that persons support (as a parent). Sad and stupid as it sounds, I can imagine a few people using this option if things got really bad.. And then getting back together after a few years and ILR gets granted.
I have always surmised that if and when it came down to it, the mother of a British baby,s right to stay in the UK had expired and couldnt be renewed owing to their sponsor not being in a position to meet the requirements, for whatever reason, then the government would be hard pushed to kick the mother out, for a range of reasons. So in other words, if the mother is here on FLR or a spouse visa and her child is born in the UK then she is gauranteed to stay, one way or another. This isnt based on anything i have read, but then i have seen nothing to say it wouldnt be the case. Anybody know of it happening, either way?
It's an interesting one. I found this but don't know what the outcome was. the impression I get from these articles is that he was being deported. http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.u...tory-16920571-detail/story.html#axzz2VL4zCbw9 http://www.itv.com/news/central/201...nt-could-be-deported-by-the-end-of-the-month/
Interesting example. Presumably aggravated by the fact that he is unemployed but he would find it hard to get work if he was at home looking after the kids and the family, minus the mom, would be on state benefits. If the mom stayed in the UK instead of being deported then at least he would stand a chance of getting work.
And if he did a runner... The UKBA would have to admit defeat! Either way, the family gets split up. From the government that likes to support the family!
