Thousands of children are facing Christmas with one of their parents stranded abroad due to the Home Office’s restrictive visa policies, prompting charities to call the UK one of the worst countries for family reunion.
Under family immigration rules, a British citizen or settled resident has to earn a minimum of £29,000 before an application can be made for a visa for a non-UK spouse to live here.
The previous government planned to increase the income threshold for these visas from £18,600 to £38,700 by the spring of 2025, but this is under review by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). For the time being the requirement has been pegged at £29,000.
The organisation Reunite Families UK has conducted research into the damaging impact of the minimum income requirement on children, who it says are hidden victims of “cruel” immigration policies. It is submitting this research to the MAC.
Working with the children’s charity Coram, it analysed research from 745 families in this situation and has separately interviewed a small group of children. The research found that 67% of the separated families’ children got to see the parent living abroad less than once a year, and 85% said the minimum income requirement was a barrier to family reunion.
The research found that the policy has left families vulnerable to poverty and facing isolation and mental health challenges, with children feeling angry, confused and distressed. One child told researchers that other children had things around them that the child could not have, because the child’s mother was trying to save up to see her partner.
One child was told by a Home Office official at a tribunal that their mother could take care of them by Skype, according to the research.
Leighton Allen, 29, a British citizen, met his partner, Sophie Nyenza, 31, a Tanzanian citizen, while he was on a trip to Tanzania two and a half years ago. They fell in love and Nyenza became pregnant. Since then, the couple have been separated, apart from during short visits by Allen to Tanzania to see Nyenza and baby Myles, as Allen cannot meet the minimum income requirement with his £12-an-hour job in retail to allow Nyenza to apply for a visa.
“This policy is honestly destroying us. It’s saying that only the rich can fall in love with someone abroad,” Allen said.
Sean (who did not want his surname used), a South African national, is apart from his British wife, Jayne. Jayne grew up in South Africa after moving there with her family at the age of five. The couple have been together for 18 years and have two children together, aged 10 and 16. They decided to relocate to the UK but Jayne is here alone trying to earn enough money to reach the minimum income requirement so that her husband can apply for a visa.
“It’s like having your family held to ransom,” Sean said. “I’m trying to make Christmas the best it can be for the children who are here with me in South Africa, while my wife will be having her Christmas lunch alone in the UK without me or her children. I wake up at 2am worrying about the 40-odd pages of visa requirements.”
Caroline Coombs, the director of Reunite Families UK, said: “The UK remains one of the worst countries in the world for family reunion. We urge the Migration Advisory Committee to listen to these experiences being shared with them and help ensure citizens and long-term residents of the UK and their children are no longer devastated by these cruel policies.”
Carol Homden, the chief executive of Coram, said: “For over 12 years, babies and children have been cut off from parents by a stringent financial test for British or settled people sponsoring their partner to join them from abroad. It is high time that the impacts on children of this policy are properly reviewed.”
Home Office sources said the home secretary had commissioned the MAC to look at this issue and that the review was expected to take approximately nine months. During this period, the minimum income threshold will remain £29,000.
