to feel utterly blessed that Ive fallen in love with someone local?

[MortifiedAdams]

My friend is in, and has been for years, a relationship with a man from Nigeria. He was in the UK for years, studying, educated to a very high level, however he has since been deported.

They speak every single day, and are almost fruitlessly trying to arrange to see each other again. His origin makes it nigh on impossible to meet anywhere in the world.

He has earning capacity of around 60k in this country, yet could only get over here (optimistically) on a Fiance Visa. Part of that means that DF has to earn a set amount every single year for a minimum number of years. Irrespective of how much money he brings in.

So, as we are all doing, settling down and having babies and taking time off, all of this will not be an option for her. She is incredibly down about the whole situation. She was once bubbly and vivacious and now is almost a recluse.

I took for granted that my DH was born round the corner!

Does anyone have any experience of the above? Is there any advice I can give? She and he have already read round and roubd the topic but I would love to be able.to help in some way.

As said above, there are other countries.

It's not a criticism of her! It's an observation. People are often afraid of leaving the familiar.

I am in this situation too. My australian dh can't get into the country without me coming without him and working for six months. After those six months we can apply.

We have been married for 12 years. We have two British born children. He is a high wage earner. He has lived in the uk for over a decade but because we have been in Australia for longer than two years his visa is no longer valid.

Yes, there are other coutries, and she will.move to be with him. Its him that is struggling to get residency anywhere due purely to being Nigerian.

Savoy what a sad situation for you! If only we could all just fall in love with the boy next door

would any of these be an option? It's not a great link, but if accurate it suggests there are options.

You seem to think I am attacking her or them in some way! This is not true. I feel deep empathy for them because we struggled for years. My husband nearly got deported, we had to fight, at one point it looked like we'd have to up sticks. There is no attack coming from me in any shape or form.

Mortified Adams it isn't true that Nigerian citizens are prevented from travelling abroad. That is just scaremongering. It is true though that parts of Nigeria are not safe and kidnapping is rife but you will find that there are some very affluent areas and people in Nigeria and Nigerians travel a lot to western countries to shop, for holidays etc

Also again depending on where they live in Nigeria, their children won't be oppressed or anything like that. Lagos and other big cities are crawling with foreigners especially people who come there to work in high paid jobs. There are private schools in lagos where you pay fees in dollars or £. So I would say if he gets a high paying job in Nigeria, she could move there to be with him and enjoy the good life.

Tikka
I suspect she's saving her money to help their case

Op if she moved to London area and did the same job could she earn a lot more. I know her outgoings would be more but the stupid rule is about income isn't it

A move to London may well.increase her wage, yes. She has currently moved in to a family members home to drastically reduce her outgoings so she can save for visits and incase she needs to move abroad,.to tide her over til she can find work.

I'd split up. I'm flaky.

Tbh this I would too.

There is a loophole some people have been using, known as the Surinder Singh route - if your friend married this man, and could find a job in another EU country for at least three months, he should then be able to enter the UK under rules for spouses of EU residents rather than non-EU spouses.

The new UK spousal visa rules are ill-thought-out and inhumane (families separated etc), and I hope will be overturned soon.

(though that might not work if he was officially deported from the UK rather than leaving when his visa expired - I'm not an expert, but I would not be surprised if that made a difference.)

Oo very interesting article - have sent the link on!

Beat me to it! I was going to suggest the surinder Singh route also. I went though the whole spouse visa to ILR process in the last few years (before the draconian new rules came in).

Well that's the thing- was he actually deported? Did he overstay? Or leave before his visa ended?

My dd has named one of her toys Surrinder Singh. There is obviously too much visa talk in my house!

YANBU this is really sad. Could he get another student visa to bide some time - masters / phd or something? I really don't have any advice apart from to scream it's not fair...

I've not read all of the above but she needs to go and see an immigration lawyer. He won't have been deported (unless there's something the OP hasn't told us - deportation is for criminal offences), but might have been administratively removed. Ifhe didn't leave voluntarily that causes difficulties. He can still apply for entry clearance but she should get legal advice first. Yes, to come here as a spouse she needs a certain level of earnings. He could also look to come here on other visa types. They could get married and they could probably both go and live in eg Ireland or France - he can accompany her if she exercises EU worker treaty rights elsewhere in the EU. Things also change if she has children with him. There are lots of options. Which ones are available depend on lots of things. She should look for a local solicitor, ideally who has an immigration legal aid contract - not because she will get legal aid (she may well not!) but because it indicates the firm knows lots about immigration law and is reasonably good.

A work colleague is currently going through the same thing. Except she's married to him. Both would be able to get decent jobs relatively easily, at least as easily as is possible in the current climate.

It is heartbreaking. And has made me lose any faith whatsoever in our immigration policies. Absolute bunch of fucking cunts Every time they think they're close, something changes, then have to another shit ton of money and basically start all over again.

Sorry, I misspoke. I assumed returning at the end of a visa = deportation, ie "had to leave as visa has expired" rather than forcefully expelled.

He is saving to do.his pHd however it remains to be seen whether he will be able to do that here or, ideally, another European country.

It does sound really hard for your friend. But as someone who has travelled a lot and works with lots of nonBrits, marrying someone from a different country can really enrich your life and bring so many benefits.