Reunite Newcastle children with their father - overturn unjust Home Office refusal!
The Issue
I am writing firstly as a mother and secondly as a wife. I don't take pride in sharing my story on social media, but I am left with no option at this stage. The UK government has decided that my husband has no right to be with his children, and despite submitting a wealth of supporting documents and spending thousands of pounds already, will not grant him a visa to be reunited with us here in the UK. We have already spent 9 painful months without him and now I am left with 2 heartbroken young children, who have no idea when they will see Daddy again. Our case below clearly emphasizes how, in a week where Rishi Sunak preaches the importance of family on social media, in reality the UK government shows little regard for this, or the mental health of its youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
Born and bred in Northumberland, I moved to Dubai in 2011 where I retrained as an 'Early Years' and ESL Teacher. I met my lovely husband, Sanas, and our son Tariq was born in 2014 in the UK. After working in hospitality for many years, Sanas retrained as cricket coach at the ICC in Dubai; something he has a real talent for. We wanted to spend some years in Sri Lanka so we moved there in 2017 and our daughter Layla was born in 2019. Both of my children are British citizens and at that time we planned to move back to the UK when our children were a bit older.
Sadly 2022 saw the onset of a nationwide economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka, the extent of which none of us had expected. 10 hour power cuts , major fuel shortages, food inflation and a shortage of medical supplies made life increasingly difficult. In March 2022 we decided we needed a break from this and decided to visit the UK on holiday since, due to the pandemic and the birth of Layla, I had not been home in 5 years. After applying for the visit visa for Sanas, we did not get any response from UKVI and the situation locally worsened rapidly. When medical shortages became critical, we decided that it was in our children's best interests for me to return with them to the UK without Sanas. While neither of them has any medical conditions, at that stage even basic paracetemol or bandages were unavailable. After the COVID19 pandemic neither of us wanted to take any chances with our health and wellbeing. I flew to Newcastle at the end of April 2022.
After returning to the UK I had to make a very difficult decision. I decided not to return to Sri Lanka and to settle back in the UK a few years earlier than we had planned. I have enough experience living in Sri Lanka to know that the situation will not improve any time soon, and this has been proven in the events that followed in 2022 and into 2023. I owe it to my children to keep them safe and in consistent education. I also have the love and support of my family here in the UK.
After I had made the decision to remain in the UK with our children, we requested the Home Office to cancel the visit visa application (since we wanted Sanas to join us permanently as a family not just for a visit). UKVI did not acknowledge the cancellation request, despite me sending them the automated emails from their own system proving that we had requested this. We were unable to begin the process without his passport being returned, which it wasn't until the end of July 2022. After this point only could we complete the mandatory English exam and TB tests needed for a family visa application.
As I had lived outside of the UK for many years I did not meet the extensive financial requirements required to sponsor my husband. We decided to apply through 'third party support' as my Mum was more than happy to support us financially if needed. I also registered with HMRC as I work as a self-employed English teacher, and my husband was offered a job by a local restaurant group for when he eventually arrives here. We have a house rented for a year with no objection from my landlord to my husband living there with us. My children attend Hotspur primary school where they are well loved and active members of their school community. After gathering all the required documents, the application was finally submitted on 22nd August 2022.
By October 2022 we had spent 6 months apart from Sanas and my children were suffering terribly. Layla had been having frequent nightmares over the previous months but these became worse and we received psychological support. Our son has intense anxiety at times and worries about Daddy, even when I tell him that everything will be OK. I have to work very anti social hours to manage my childcare as a single parent, sometimes teaching classes online at 5am. The emotional strain on all of us has been unbearable at times. I contacted my MP who submitted additional reports on my children from their school and the psychologist to the Home Office on behalf of us, but we were rejected with a generic response stating that they would only expedite an application in the event of a life threatening illness or death. Therefore, we had to accept that we just had to survive and get through the next few months until the visa was issues. My children repeatedly asked me why Daddy isn't here - how do I explain this system to a 3 and 8 year old?
On January 13th 2023 I received the refusal letter from UKVI. My husband's visa application has been rejected on one detail - the Home Office do not accept that our situation is 'exceptional' enough to use third party financial support. They also state that a refusal of the visa does NOT cause 'harsh consequences' to me or my children. Additionally, they use the word 'temporary' to describe the separation - so far this separation has been 25% of my daughters life. Is it reasonable for any child to be without a parent for so long?
The Home Office suggest in their refusal letter that I reapply (at the cost of another 1800) when I can complete a full year of self employment. Based on my current situation, as a single parent, meeting the requirements even then is most likely impossible at this stage and we would be looking at APRIL 2024 before I could reapply. Why is the UK government actively keeping our family apart when we have provided every single bit of evidence required to prove that we are a genuine family who can support themselves in the UK together?
The agonizing pain of the last 9 months, the decline in my children's mental health, the nightmare for my husband of not knowing when he will see his family again is not something that we can cope with much longer. Therefore I plead to the general public for their support, and to the UK government to overturn this cruel decision which has been made without properly considering the wellbeing of 2 British children.
Victory
The Issue
I am writing firstly as a mother and secondly as a wife. I don't take pride in sharing my story on social media, but I am left with no option at this stage. The UK government has decided that my husband has no right to be with his children, and despite submitting a wealth of supporting documents and spending thousands of pounds already, will not grant him a visa to be reunited with us here in the UK. We have already spent 9 painful months without him and now I am left with 2 heartbroken young children, who have no idea when they will see Daddy again. Our case below clearly emphasizes how, in a week where Rishi Sunak preaches the importance of family on social media, in reality the UK government shows little regard for this, or the mental health of its youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
Born and bred in Northumberland, I moved to Dubai in 2011 where I retrained as an 'Early Years' and ESL Teacher. I met my lovely husband, Sanas, and our son Tariq was born in 2014 in the UK. After working in hospitality for many years, Sanas retrained as cricket coach at the ICC in Dubai; something he has a real talent for. We wanted to spend some years in Sri Lanka so we moved there in 2017 and our daughter Layla was born in 2019. Both of my children are British citizens and at that time we planned to move back to the UK when our children were a bit older.
Sadly 2022 saw the onset of a nationwide economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka, the extent of which none of us had expected. 10 hour power cuts , major fuel shortages, food inflation and a shortage of medical supplies made life increasingly difficult. In March 2022 we decided we needed a break from this and decided to visit the UK on holiday since, due to the pandemic and the birth of Layla, I had not been home in 5 years. After applying for the visit visa for Sanas, we did not get any response from UKVI and the situation locally worsened rapidly. When medical shortages became critical, we decided that it was in our children's best interests for me to return with them to the UK without Sanas. While neither of them has any medical conditions, at that stage even basic paracetemol or bandages were unavailable. After the COVID19 pandemic neither of us wanted to take any chances with our health and wellbeing. I flew to Newcastle at the end of April 2022.
After returning to the UK I had to make a very difficult decision. I decided not to return to Sri Lanka and to settle back in the UK a few years earlier than we had planned. I have enough experience living in Sri Lanka to know that the situation will not improve any time soon, and this has been proven in the events that followed in 2022 and into 2023. I owe it to my children to keep them safe and in consistent education. I also have the love and support of my family here in the UK.
After I had made the decision to remain in the UK with our children, we requested the Home Office to cancel the visit visa application (since we wanted Sanas to join us permanently as a family not just for a visit). UKVI did not acknowledge the cancellation request, despite me sending them the automated emails from their own system proving that we had requested this. We were unable to begin the process without his passport being returned, which it wasn't until the end of July 2022. After this point only could we complete the mandatory English exam and TB tests needed for a family visa application.
As I had lived outside of the UK for many years I did not meet the extensive financial requirements required to sponsor my husband. We decided to apply through 'third party support' as my Mum was more than happy to support us financially if needed. I also registered with HMRC as I work as a self-employed English teacher, and my husband was offered a job by a local restaurant group for when he eventually arrives here. We have a house rented for a year with no objection from my landlord to my husband living there with us. My children attend Hotspur primary school where they are well loved and active members of their school community. After gathering all the required documents, the application was finally submitted on 22nd August 2022.
By October 2022 we had spent 6 months apart from Sanas and my children were suffering terribly. Layla had been having frequent nightmares over the previous months but these became worse and we received psychological support. Our son has intense anxiety at times and worries about Daddy, even when I tell him that everything will be OK. I have to work very anti social hours to manage my childcare as a single parent, sometimes teaching classes online at 5am. The emotional strain on all of us has been unbearable at times. I contacted my MP who submitted additional reports on my children from their school and the psychologist to the Home Office on behalf of us, but we were rejected with a generic response stating that they would only expedite an application in the event of a life threatening illness or death. Therefore, we had to accept that we just had to survive and get through the next few months until the visa was issues. My children repeatedly asked me why Daddy isn't here - how do I explain this system to a 3 and 8 year old?
On January 13th 2023 I received the refusal letter from UKVI. My husband's visa application has been rejected on one detail - the Home Office do not accept that our situation is 'exceptional' enough to use third party financial support. They also state that a refusal of the visa does NOT cause 'harsh consequences' to me or my children. Additionally, they use the word 'temporary' to describe the separation - so far this separation has been 25% of my daughters life. Is it reasonable for any child to be without a parent for so long?
The Home Office suggest in their refusal letter that I reapply (at the cost of another 1800) when I can complete a full year of self employment. Based on my current situation, as a single parent, meeting the requirements even then is most likely impossible at this stage and we would be looking at APRIL 2024 before I could reapply. Why is the UK government actively keeping our family apart when we have provided every single bit of evidence required to prove that we are a genuine family who can support themselves in the UK together?
The agonizing pain of the last 9 months, the decline in my children's mental health, the nightmare for my husband of not knowing when he will see his family again is not something that we can cope with much longer. Therefore I plead to the general public for their support, and to the UK government to overturn this cruel decision which has been made without properly considering the wellbeing of 2 British children.
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Petition created on 17 January 2023