British woman laments Brexit rules that would stop her Italian husband moving to UK
Sarah Douglas moved to Italy to teach English in 2007 before marrying Matteo Ricci, an Italian software developer, in 2010.
The couple had always planned to settle in the UK, where Douglas wants to be closer to her parents, who are in their 70s.
But under the current, post-Brexit immigration regime, she must earn more than £29,000 and have been working in a job paying that for at least six months in the UK before she can apply for a family visa that would allow her husband to move here, or have £88,500 in cash savings.
The rules mean she would have to return to the UK from the family's home in Perugia, Umbria, with their three children – Alba, 13, Mirryn, 10 and Arthur, five – before Ricci could join them.
On Tuesday, a review by the migration advisory committee (Mac) raised the hopes of families separated by the rules.
The panel suggested ministers could cut the amount a British citizen or settled resident must earn to apply for a partner's visa and suggested scrapping a Tory plan to raise the minimum income requirement to £38,700, saying it would conflict with the right to family life (article 8, EHCR).
'It sounds really promising so far, but I still can't get hopeful,' Douglas, who grew up in the Scottish Borders, said.
'We're very secure, but this visa policy would push us into instability by being separated, funding two households, being a single parent home, essentially, for at least six months,' she added.
Ricci earns more than the income requirement, but under the current rules, his salary is not taken into account.
'The other crazy thing is that my children are also British citizens,' Douglas added. 'We could come anytime alone and be completely dependent on the state for benefits, but we're not allowed to bring my husband who would work to support us.
'It's an awful lot of hoops to jump through to be able to live in my own country. It's really upsetting for my kids. Most of their family lives in the UK. They speak English fluently. They really don't understand why they can't live in their own country close to their cousins.
'We just basically feel forgotten about, rejected. We can't make any concrete future plans. But we would not be considering moving if we didn't think we would be financially independent.'
Until April 2024, the income requirement was £18,600, or two and half times that figure in cash savings. The couple were close to meeting the savings requirement when the threshold was changed.
Caroline Coombs, the executive director of Reunite Families UK, said families' voices had been 'ignored for too long', adding that the policy had 'caused untold damage to those whose only 'fault' has been to fall in love with someone born abroad' with a 'horrendous impact on children'.
'We appreciate Mac's reference to the fact that should the government decide to maintain an MIR [minimum income requirement], this should be lowered … however we firmly believe that there shouldn't be an MIR. Any threshold, even at minimum wage would still separate people who just want to be a family.'
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are now considering [the Mac review's] findings and will respond in due course. The government has already committed to legislate to clarify the application of article 8 of the ECHR for applicants, caseworkers and the courts.'
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