I married an illegal immigrant - AMA

[Annie834]

I married a man who entered the UK as an illegal immigrant. After 5 years of relationship and two years of living together, we applied for his visa on grounds that he is my ‘durable life partner’ (this was while EU law was still applicable in the UK, I’m a EU citizen with settlement status). We went via an immigration lawyer and were upfront about the fact that he entered the UK illegally (not that this could have been concealed anyway). The application was successful and he was granted pre-settled status. We then got married a couple of years later and had a child.

I will answer any questions, but might not engage in wider discussions about illegal immigration, there are enough threads about that topic and this is an AMA.

I know if I'd been born in a different country, I'd do all that to make a better life for my family. 100%.

I think he viewed this as a ‘selling his body’ type of thing, and there’s also his pride about doing things by himself and not being at the mercy of another person. He’s more in agreement of illegal border crossing or tax evasion than putting himself in a situation where he needs to play good partner to receive a benefit.

Lucky kid. Wish my DD had an EU passport.

Exactly this. Really worrying to hear that they are deliberately employing people like the OP describes. I imagine their attitude to workplace health and safety follows the same casual disregard so heaven help anyone on their site who is injured and needs to claim compensation.

I see the OPs husband is now running his own construction business, I hope all his employees are here legally, being paid properly, are registered for NI and tax, and are full qualified when it comes to fitting electrics , gas and plumbing. It used to be a £20,000 fine for employing an illegal worker, but I think it has gone up now.

Really? We put them up in hotels. Other countries put them in camps, which is why France has such an issue with migrants trying to board British lorries.

What does he see as the difference between tax evasion and claiming illegal benefits!

Morally both wrong, both stealing from honest working people, depriving the government of funding to pay for schools, hospitals, houses, infrastructure etc etc.

Shame your husband thinks coming to a country illegally gives him the right to steal from that country to line his own pocket.

I wish you well and that it works out.
And that it doesn't end like a close relative's did.
She married a Kosovan Albanian who was an illegal immigrant and he played her like a fiddle.
After a few years, once he had the right to live in the UK in his own right, he said he was homesick and wanted to return and run a business with his dad.

They divorced - her work is here. She'd been head over heels in love with him.

Lo and behold, he swiftly came back to the UK, married a woman from his home country and they had a baby. She used to see him around their city.

He was charming, good looking and we had liked him. But there's no doubt he conned her.

He doesn’t claim benefits. Tax evasion was kind of a necessity when he had to work £50 cash in hands, but by the time I’ve met him he already was employed (under a wrong name) and paid taxes. It was never his intention not to pay taxes and he tried to get out of the black market situation asap.

Perhaps you could just trump up in France illegally and wait until they give you a passport. Or maybe they aren't a soft touch like the UK?

I was wondering if he thought Britain would be like the sort of way it's potraied in Hollywood or on the tv.
Yes it's difficult to imagine what somewhere else might be like to grow up in.
I suppose you might still miss the place if it's in a mess.
What are Decolonisers? I do not currently live in the UK but come from there.

He can't be Muslim, then.

"They employed him under the name of a distant family member who had the right to work in the UK and since then he had regular income."

If he was using a "distant" relative's name to work under, was the relative also working? Didn't that affect their taxable earnings? Or was that someone who had the right to work but was not in the UK?

How could he be paying taxes under another name! I very much doubt his lying employers were deducting tax through paye . Did he get payslips? When he left did they give him his P45 showing how much tax he had paid?

Does you husband worry about the future the state of the world.Am interested as you have had a child quite soon.My own son who is probably younger is not keen to have children, as he thinks world is in a state.Or was it you who was keen to have children? Genuine question

I find it really odd that you’re choosing to berate the OP in this way. What are you hoping to get out of it?

Yes. It was under the construction scheme where the employer pays 20% tax for them. They still have to do a self-assessment at the end of the tax year. The employer provided each month a paper that showed how much tax was deducted. You then use this for the self assessment and either have to pay additional tax or claim some back, depending on earnings over the year. Once DH had his status, he obviously worked under his own name and I did the self assessment for him, so I know this part quite well.

Actually it wasn’t that soon, we were together for 7 years and married for 1 when DS was born. We are both late 30s.

Of course he can. HMRC don’t come down to building sites and verify the person working is the person named on payroll do they?

I was quite undecided about children all through my 30s, because of the state of the world and other reasons. My husband is a happy go lucky character, he’s never particularly concerned about anything. He wanted children more than me in general and couldn’t imagine a life without children, but it was me who said ‘let’s do it now then’ because I was aware of my age.

I think there can be checks on building sites, but in reality these are rare. Never happened to DH in over 5 years.

Shame they don’t if building site managers are happily colluding in fraud by employing illegal workers under names which they ( the managers) have provided. I expect the paper work on sites employing illegal workers in this way are a bit short on accuracy.

Why on earth is that relevant?

Your privilege is shining through all of your posts.

It doesn't have to be relevant. I'm merely saying that because Muslims don't, or shouldn't, go to pubs.

Never said he was?