Do you think the new £38K income visa threshold for UK spouse visas is fair?

[zendeveloper]

It is set at the same level as for work visas.

Feels completely crazy to me, but then, I am also an immigrant (although the changes don't affect me), so probably too sensitive to the topic. Would be interesting to hear MN opinion.

Careful there. That's almost subtext for keeping the UK "white"🙄

Yep and sadly many of their true blue Tory supporters are too short sighted to recognise that they or a family member might come to rely on the care given from these migrant workers. My DM is currently receiving extensive medical treatment and she'd be lost without the wonderful Pilipino nurses and carers who work in the local NHS hospital. Whilst they deserve to earn considerably more than £38k I doubt they are.

It's sad really. I have 2 lovely friends, British citizens, who live overseas with their spouses. Who would love to come back home to live but won't be able to bring their spouses but would not meet the requirements and, though have skills, would find it hard to get this sort of salary but would both want to work and contribute to our society.

Your private medical insurance doesn’t cover everything though. It doesn’t cover child birth, and all the medical appointments around it. It doesn’t cover primary care. It doesn’t cover emergency care….

James Cleverley's own mum would not have been able to enter the country, under this law. But that's in keeping with the entire Tory cabinet.

An old friend of mine brought her spouse back from South Africa. He changed jobs as often as he changed his underwear once he got here. Kept giving up of too difficult and got sacked from some. Then a long spell of unemployment in which she had to keep him

It isn't always the case that both partners work and if you want to bring someone in tou need to be able to pay their way.

A&E and other emergency is actually a small proportion of the overall average, people just overreact to loud / expensive cases.

If I have a heart attack, definitely not going to NHS A&E, I'd be dead before the sunrise lol.

She was a midwife, so she might have been, I’m not sure. But it was the 60s, a very different time, with very different challenges.

And?

Where will you go?

And when the private health care fucks up or fails is an nhs ambulance to an nhs hospital.

What about direct billing for all services instead? Or paid for by insurance paid in advance maybe?

Then I guess your family need little in the way of medical care.

And still, thankfully did not need to touch the fantastic NHS in the last decade or so, despite dutifully paying the surcharge, as a good immigrant. Even went back to my home country for the childbirth.

The exact place? St John's and Elizabeth's hospital, I think. Why?

Tbh it's not a bad idea. The UK really does need people who can contribute higher salaries, and this is a start.

And when the NHS fucks up or fails, which is, quite honestly, much more likely?

Anyway, this is not a thread about the NHS.

@zendeveloper I also went to my home country for childbirth. I haven't used the NHS for years except for my covid vax. Maybe we will get "Good immigrant" badges!

OP you are lucky to have the best of both worlds as you can go back to your home country and have medical treatment if you need to

The reality is that it's incredibly short sighted. A lot of people get married when they are young, at the start of their career. They may not be earning that much now, but they have the potential to earn a very high salary in a short period, and become net contributors.

If this had been in place when dh and I got married, as students, we would have had to settle abroad. Which we would have done. Instead we worked in the UK for over 10 years, earning very high salaries and paying a huge amount of tax (then we moved abroad).

I can imagine if my dc met someone from abroad while doing phd/postdoc work and came up against this that they may well choose to move abroad where this does not apply. Fortunately they have a number of nationalities they can choose from, so it should not be a major constraint for them. Likely to be a loss for the tax revenues of the UK though.

What’s outrageous? Do you think that we should just accept everyone, irrespective of whether they are going to be able to support themselves?

If you think things are bad in the U.K. at the moment, think how much worse it would get if everyone was allowed to just come to the U.K. irrespect of their financial situation? Do you really think our already struggling economy, should have to support these people? Now, that would be outrageous!

And who's nursing in the Philippines if we keeping skimming off a their "wonderful nurses" to work here? Maybe if we offered better working conditions here we could home grow more wonderful nurses ourselves?

@CormorantStrikesBack How old is he? If under 35 he could apply for the Youth Mobility Visa.

It's far too high. My DH is on a spousal visa, if we were not already in the UK, it would be impossible for me to ever live here again. It's massively discrimatory towards women, mothers, the young and the old. It is higher than the average income, it is approximately 70 hours a week at minimum wage - basically impossible. There is already a healthcare surcharge and spouses are not entitled to claim anything. People that have spent thousands, worked so hard to get here, started families, will have to leave. Kids will grow up without their foreign parent. Could you double your income in a couple of months? Of course not, almost nobody could.They could reduce demand by paying health and social care work properly, funding universities adequately and stop starting wars all over the place. Families are just an easy target and I think it's disgusting. So many of my circle will be impacted, ordinary people, British people, people working thankless jobs Brits don't want to do. Frankly I've not been more angry about anything for a long time and hell will freeze over a thousand times before I ever vote conservative.

Yes I know others in this situation.

British citizens living abroad who can’t go back to (e.g.) look after ageing parents, unless they leave spouse and children behind.

how can it be fair to be locked out of your own country? Are we all just economic units now? Do cultural and family ties count for nothing?