Thread.
Brexiteers often assume that non-EU migrants like me are salivating for the moment when EU migrants will be forced to deal with UKVI like the rest of us - it will be 'fairer', they claim. Why would I, a non-EU migrant, want more people forced into this awful system?
Brexiteers often assume that non-EU migrants like me are salivating for the moment when EU migrants will be forced to deal with UKVI like the rest of us - it will be 'fairer', they claim. Why would I, a non-EU migrant, want more people forced into this awful system?
Here's my own story: after eight years and five visas (four student visas, one as the family member of an EU national), a law change meant I was able to claim British citizenship by descent through my father.
(As an aside, the reason I was not able to do so before then is because my parents were unmarried. A child of a married British father could be British by descent, likewise a child of a married or unmarried British mother. But an unmarried father, no.
They couldn't be sure that an unmarried man's children were really his own, you see. Never mind what it said on the birth certificate. They only changed this law a few years ago, after twenty years of lobbying from people in my situation.)
Anyway, I send my documents off, the payment for the citizenship application is taken, and I get my acknowledgement letter (UKVI is supposed to send all applicants an acknowledgement of receipt of documents.)
And here my troubles began.
And here my troubles began.
The acknowledgement letter addressed me by the wrong name. In spite of having my birth certificate, passport, and current visa - and eight years' worth of previous applications on file - someone, somewhere, had flipped my middle and last names around.
The letter addressed me as 'Dear Firstname Lastname Middle Name'.
Anxious that I might be issued with a citizenship certificate in the wrong name, I contacted them to correct this. My emails went unanswered, my letters (plus scans of passport and birth certificate) were ignored
Anxious that I might be issued with a citizenship certificate in the wrong name, I contacted them to correct this. My emails went unanswered, my letters (plus scans of passport and birth certificate) were ignored
After this went on for several weeks, I submitted a formal complaint. This was investigated, and dismissed. Because I was 'known to the Home Office' (despite eight years of previous visas in the correct name) as this wrong name, that would be what I'd be getting on my certificate
At this point, I got both my local MP, and the immigration compliance officer at my employer involved - and with one email from the compliance officer, the whole thing was sorted out in a single afternoon.
What always haunts me about this episode is - what about the people who don't work for large, rich, respected universities with administrative staff who are prepared to fight on their behalf? What about those who don't have the privilege, language skills, time and money to fight?
As an extra slap in the face, my new British passport (giving me the EU citizenship I so desperately craved, not because I felt particularly European, but because freedom of movement was such a great gift) arrived the day after the EU referendum. It was like salt in the wounds.
Other people's experiences I know about: my husband, after waiting five months for a permanent residency document (which he would need in order to naturalise), was issued with the wrong type of visa. It took a further six months to sort out, including making a formal complaint.
Another friend was refused a spouse visa due to the case worker misplacing a document and, rather than wait years for an uncertain appeal, chose to reapply again, paying thousands of pounds for the privilege.
One friend was refused an extension on her Tier 4 (student) visa because she'd allegedly held this type of visa for too long (in spite of having arrived in the country before time limits were applied to Tier 4 visas - laws are not meant to be applied retrospectively).
She had to get her university to fight on her behalf, which took several months.
A colleague's wife was refused a spouse visa because she had previously been in a relationship with another British man, and UKVI thought her marriage to my colleague was a sham. They had to get the media involved to get the decision reversed.
Another friend's partner went to take the Life in the UK test (a prerequisite for citizenship), and his proof of address (a bank statement) was rejected because it didn't have his name and address on every single page, only on the first page.
When he went back to take the test a second time, he was turned away again because his name on his passport didn't match the name he'd entered into their booking system.
The reason it didn't match was because he had a long name, with lots of middle names, and it didn't fit into the field in which to enter his name on the online booking form - which had a character limit!
He gave up, and he and his partner have both left the country.
He gave up, and he and his partner have both left the country.
Delays on another friend's visa being processed essentially meant she had to abandon her PhD.
Another friend's husband's spouse visa has been repeatedly refused, because she is a white British woman and he is a North African Muslim man, and UKVI therefore thinks their marriage is a sham. They haven't seen each other in several years.
Tonight I'm attending the farewell party of two more friends who are leaving because of Brexit. I honestly can't blame them. Who'd want to deal with this level of malicious incompetence, just to stay in a country that treats you like thieves and parasites?
And we're all the LUCKY ones: fluent English speakers, with university administration willing to go in to bat for us, with the money and institutional privilege to fight bureaucratic ineptitude. For those who aren't, everything is so much worse.
I only needed my birth certificate to prove my father was my father for proof of citizenship by descent. There were others in my situation who were asked for DNA tests!
No one I know felt happy or proud when they became a citizen. Instead we all felt exhausted, frustrated relief.
I still feel tense and anxious whenever I see UKVI letterhead, like a pavlovian response.
I still feel tense and anxious whenever I see UKVI letterhead, like a pavlovian response.
And, as an added side effect of all this, it's got to the point where I don't trust or feel a desire to be friends with anyone British who isn't also a migrant, the child of migrants, in a relationship with a migrant, or who has migrants in their social circle.
Because they have no idea of what's being done in their name, seem to have no desire to learn, assume that it's easy (or at least works smoothly) to apply for visas, and tolerate all mainstream political parties blaming migrants for every injustice and social problem.
Even those whose views in all other areas are impeccably progressive seem to view migrants (EU or otherwise) as acceptable collateral damage in getting their messiah elected. It's exhausting.
And what is the most exhausting is expending so much money, time, stress, and emotion on applying for the documents that make it possible for you to remain in a country that doesn't want you. /END
