to think the govt is treating my family like a cash machine

[petelly]

So, story is met and married a forinuh (and a non EU one at that) when living abroad. We married in 2001 and have 2 dcs. In 2008 I was offered a good job in the UK and we decided to move here.

First off, £750 for a spouse visa. Usually good for two years. Then you come to the UK, take the stupid 'Life in the UK test' for £35 and then apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain which costs £840. After 3 years in the UK, you can apply for citizenship which costs £735. So over £2000 forked over to govt just for the privilege of a married couple living together.

Now, in our case, we'd been married for 7 years when we applied so we found a loop hole where dh could get indefinite leave as part of the original visa (saving us £840!!). BUT you had to take the Life in the UK test which you HAVE to sit in the UK. So dh got on a plane, flew to the UK, sat the test (passed ) and flew back again which cost us £400 plus carbon footprint - but significant saving for us.

Then last year our bag was stolen while we were abroad with all our passports. We all got new passports - easy enough.

But then the flipping border agency charged £270 for a replacement visa stamp in dh's passport. Now, the worst thing is that you'd think for that money you'd get a good service but NO!!! With the replacement stamp the border agency kept his passport for SIX MONTHS DH lost work because he couldn't prove he was eligible to work in the UK. He also nearly missed a previously booked business trip but persuaded his embassy to give him a temporary second passport (another £100). Our MP got involved and his assistant found dh's original indefinite leave within SECONDS on the computer.

When dh applies for citizenship, the Border Agnecy also say it can take six months. But WHY FFS if we are paying through our noses? can't they at least provide a decent service? They also have a premium number phone-line where you get through to some passive-agressive 'computer says no' kind of person.

The Border Agency openly say that they use the revenue generated by over-charging legal immigrants to fund the deportation of illegal immigrants to make the immigration system self-funding. WTF!!! So all non-EU immigrants need to PAY for illegal immigrants??? I don't get it and it just doesn't seem fair.

We also get charged a 'community integration fee' to help LAs struggling with high immigration levels. But a lot of the problems are caused by EU immigrants eg Polish who don't speak English and don't pay a penny because they're EU. I'm British, my children are British, we all speak English - and no-one has lifted a finger to help us 'integrate' either. So why are we paying for a fucking community integration fee??

Is it just me (because we're paying!!!) or does this just seem totally OTT, unfair and exploiting people who don't have much of a choice???

That does seem horribly expensive and complicated for people in your position - married for years to a British citizen.

All the best to you and dh anyway - I guess despite all this you like it here

What do they ask in the life in the UK test?

Where is your dh from?

DH is Israeli but we were living in the US.

The Life in the UK test is sooo fricking stupid. DH has studied British history and constitution and couldn't believe they didn't ask about the things that might make someone proud to be British. Instead it was stupid things like 'What to do you do if you lose your debit card' or 'What language do they speak in Wales'. Seriously.

Oh, the Citizenship test is bollox, I'd fail it myself (and I'm born and bred British.)

But otoh, there are expenses associated with the admin, and someone has to pay; might as well be the applicant. And ultimately, it's not all that much, is it? For the gains?

The charges are above and beyond the admin cost.

Of course we should pay our way and any costs incurred. But the unit cost of the admin is a third of the actual cost. I read an analysis of this which is on the Border Agency website.

We're paying for the integration of ALL immigrants including asylum seekers (who pay nothing - and rightfully so IMO) and EU immigrants (who pay nothing). We're also paying for the deportation of illegals. How is that fair?

Do we do something different in the UK then when we lose our debit cards? Different from the rest of the world I mean?

Some parts of the world don't have debit cards. Or credit cards.

it is farcical

i have indefinite leave to remain, used to cost nothing. There is no way I would take the citizenship test now or apply for a UK passport with those fees

Oldlady - I know - but if you don't have one and then get one here you will be told what you need to do as part of the application - I certainly was years ago when I opened my student account. If you have one already - you'll know what to do. Seems a bit odd sort of a question.

TBH, most of the questions on the citizenship quiz thing are "odd". And the first time I looked at it, some of the answers were already out of date, but you have to give the "right" (ie they're in the "handbook") answers, even if they're wrong!

Which is why I think it's bollox.

I'm in Canada with my Canadian husband and they did the same here. English test (won't my English A level count?), syphillis test (not a 19th century pirate last I checked), x-ray for TB, even though I had the BCG, which they don't do here... Thousands of dollars and I would much rather live in London, it's DH's choice to be here. Oh, and they told me they didnt think we had a lasting and serious relationship` at one point. I was so upset. It really makes me feel for people who have ESL or any real challenges to their applications.

Same in New Zealand... I have now permanent residence and the whole process cost me more than $4000 . It includes two separate sets of medical certificates and police reports for every country you have been to in the last 5 years. The funny thing is, you have to go through the medicals once to get your initial visa, and a second time when you apply for residence... even if you had never even left New Zealand in that period! So you would assume, any "new disease" you have, you would have caught it in the country... and you would assume too, you wouldn't have committed any new crime in countries where you haven't been to since you applied for your previous police record. But any logic is missing from the whole process. It is just a way of getting revenue, in the UK as in everywhere else.

Oh, I don't know how it is in the UK, but in New Zealand if you renew your passport and they have to print a new sticker for the new one (just PRINT A NEW STICKER, no extra paperwork involved), the fee is NZD$100. Considering that the new passports only have a validity of 5 years, it is $100 every 5 years that they get from every single immigrant, even when you have permanent residence.

YANBU. I also went trhough the same thing. As did my BF who is Australian married for 10 years to a Brit. (It was quite funny watching her prepare for her Life in the Uk test, which at the end of the day just replaced the language test. She has a PhD in English literature. )

The price of things was staggering then- see they have gone up. More than the rate of inflation too i am willing to bet.

When I was doing it though i was shocked at how complicated the various forms you had to fill out and documents you had to get were. I am a professional bureaucrat, and I still managed to fill out the wrong set of forms.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the New Zealand embassy in London has a special tarification number... I seem to remember it was GBP1.5 per minute to call there. And the first 5 minutes of the call, you were forced to listen to a pre-recorded message in which they listed all the other places you may have actually wanted to call. After that, they put you on hold. Eventually, you would get to talk to someone who most times had no idea what you were asking them, and told you to go to London in person. That was actually the best times... others, the call would magically get cut off and you would have to call again and start the whole process.

wow, you should all come and live in Japan!

It costs about GBP30 for a spouse visa, and I got Permanant Residency for GBP50! (and within 4 months of submitting the very simple documentation...)

There is no language test, no medical, no criminal records asked for..

you have to write a letter (in English or Japanese) to say why you want indefinite leave to remain. And submit a photo of you with your DH to show that you are couple.

Not sure how much it would be to take Japanese citizenship. It would mean giving up my UK passport, so I am not going to do that until Japan brings in dual nationality.

But I think the worst thing is that they just assume you can give up your passport for 6 months. So you can't travel and you can't take any new work because you can't prove your eligible to work here. If you're going to charge an extortionate fee, at least provide a reaosnable service.

Still, makes the govt look good in the Daily Mail doesn't it . It was one of the reasons I couldn't bring myself to vote Labour - bunch of hypocrites (they introduced all the charges - how can somethinig go from free to £840 in a few years???)

And it's not the British residency/citizenship isn't worth it. It's that I don't think it should be awarded on your ability to pay. You're awarded citizenship based on certain criteria that you needed to fulfil. Otherwise, why not just auction it on the global market? I'm sure there are people who'll be more than happy to pay much more than £840 for British citizenship.

Doesn't help that DH doesn't really want to be here and only came because of me....

2k for British Citizenship? Sounds cheap to me - why isnt it 10k?

I'd prefer the UK to be a Waldorf hotel rather than a Travellodge.

So you think that 10k is an appropriate charge

And that's what a British person needs to pay for the right to a married life with his/her partner?

So why not just auction citizenship off to the highest bid if it's a revenue generating exercise?

I'm going to show this to my cousin. She gets married next month to an African who she met on her gap year. He has failed to get a visa to come and visit her and so they are planning to get married and do all what you have done I suppose - her plan seems to be to bring him to the UK to live.

YABU about the cost - simply because it is your choice for you all to come and live here.

But, YADNBU about the inconvenience that this has caused you and your dh, especially with regards to him finding work - it makes no sense what so ever.

To be fair, citizenship is not a price you have to pay to live together as a married couple; that one is voluntary. I never got round to it and I have been 17 years in this country.

We want to get citizenship so that we never have to deal with the Border Agency again. Who knows if they'll change the rules? We figure better to get citizenship ASAP

gingernutlover

Your cousin's partner is going to have a hard time of it. The Border Agency (or entry clearance officer at the embassy) are going to be very suspicious. They will have to prove that the relationship is genuine so better start collecting evidence (emails, photos together etc).

We had an easier time because we'd been married 7 years and had 2 dc when we applied so not hard to prove the marriage is genuine (and if you're prepared to do all that to become British then you probably deserve it!).

tell me about it petelly I can see the whole thing ending in tears to be honest.

Her answer is that she loves him so much that if they can't come to enlgand they will "find a country somewhere, where we can be together".

None of us have met him and my nan is going out of her mind with worry - So I just have to keep telling her not to fret

Which country is he from? Some may be easier than others...It's a bit worrying if he's already been refused a visa. Did they say why?

Do you think it's genuine?

I totally agree. I hold a passport from a different European country because I was born there and my father is from there. My parents moved to the Uk when I was months old and I've lived here ever since, I don't speak the language of the country I'm a national of. I consider myself to be British, my mother's british, my husband is British, my children are British.

To change my nationality it will cost £750 - it's a heck of a lot of money and we've always got something else higher up the priority list - you know like eating.