Help keep our family together

Hi friends,

My name is Arnesa and you are probably familiar with the work that I do! I am an genocide educator and survivor. I lecture on the Bosnian Genocide as well as the Holocaust and contemporary cases of genocide. In addition, I write, organise events, and spend my free time educating others on the consequences of hatred, ethno-nationalism, Balkan history and current socio-political issues.

A few years ago, I moved to the United Kingdom to be with my husband and our daughter. Our life together has been amazing. Since I moved to the UK, my family which had lived in the United States with me has moved back to Bosnia so that we would be closer.

We came to the UK on a Spousal Visa for which we had to pay almost 15,000 in fees, NHS surcharges, and legal expenses. In addition, in order to move to the UK and get our VISA approved we also had to pay off all of my medical debt which I had acquired due to having ovarian cancer, pay over 40K in legal fees for a custody agreement and adoption process, and a lot of other expenses in order to move. But we did. We saved for years. Both my husband and I worked very hard and diligently in order to be able to reunite and live our lives in London.

We also knew that eventually we would have to renew our VISA and so we put money aside for that too. We knew it would cost over 6,000 in visa fees and NHS surcharges for our daughter and myself. My husband is a British citizen and yet despite that we have to ensure we are fulfilling the financial obligations in order to continue staying and living our lives in the UK.

London is our home. It is where our daughter goes to school and has friends. It's where our neighbours and loved ones are. My in-laws and all of my husband's family live in the UK. All of my family now resides in Bosnia so that we are close enough to visit each other.

This July we have to pay over 6,000 in order to renew our VISA and continue staying together. We initially had this money saved and put away, however as living expenses grew and as cost of living and inflation increased...our money lessened. Due to covid-19, I was made redundant from my position and forced into taking a paycut. We had to dig into our savings in order to cover our bills and living expenses. Life happens even to the best of planners.

Now, with just a few months until the deadline we are fundraising to pay for our VISA renewal and stay together as a family. If we aren't able to pay for the visa renewal, our daughter and I will be deported to the United States where we no longer have any close family or anyone to stay with. Our daughter will be forced to leave her school, her home, her friends, and her environment in London which she has gotten accustomed to and loves. I will be forced to leave my job and career which I worked immensely hard to build, my friends, my family and my husband too.

I know that times are tough but I am hopeful that you can donate what you can or at least share this in order to keep our family together.

The Breakdown of expenses:

Visa Fee for Arnesa: £1,048

Visa Fee for my daughter: £1,048

NHS Surcharge: £1,560

NHS Surcharge for our daughter: £1,560

Bio Metrics: 19.20 per person

Priority Tracking fee: £800

Attorney and US paperwork fees: 4,500

Total: £10,500 

Update: Due to complications with our VISA, in order to ensure our VISA is approved we will have to get an attorney to get us through the process. This is mainly due to the fact, that we have a dependent who is not in contact with her biological father and who has refused to sign the necessary paperwork to ensure our VISA gets through. While our initial custody agreement states that Adam and I have full custody and sole physical custody and that Ajsa has only lived with us and will continue to live with us in London, in order to prepare for Ajsa to obtain British citizenship as Adam is her parent and guardian...there are additional processes we must go through. 

Our application is due by July and we simply must raise all the funds because if we don't we will be separated and forced to pay the fees again if we want to be reunited in our home.

Thank you so much for your support so far.