Help Alex & Destiny get a VISA to be together

For folks who follow me but maybe don’t know, I'm married to an amazing American woman, Destiny. We've been in a relationship for 10 years and married for 7 years, however, most of that has been apart/long distance due to personal situations and not meeting financial requirements for a UK spouse visa (musicians and artists don't earn a lot!). We love each other deeply and have worked very hard over the years to make our relationship work despite the odds and the ocean dividing us.

Current UK visa requirements are very strict, complicated, and expensive. They are some of the tightest requirements in the world, in addition to the expensive application fees, health care surcharges, and lawyer fees, all of which are non-refundable if the visa application is refused for any reason. In addition, the visa only lasts 2.5 years, after which you must go through the whole process and pay all the fees again to renew for another 2.5 years. Finally after 5 years, you can go through a third application process for permanent residency.

I have given up my main career as a touring musician and sound therapist for the past few years to take a job as a full-time salaried employee of a local government council to meet the visa financial requirements, as well as to save money to help make all this happen, while Destiny has been back in the USA working and saving for this move too. After all this time, we are so close, but now we are facing some unexpected hurdles that throw those plans into jeopardy.

Firstly, the newly announced government plans to raise the financial requirements to £38,700 salary earnings or £112,750 in cash savings could make all this financially impossible for us and many others. To put this in a broader perspective, approximately 80% of the British population would not be able to meet these proposed financial requirements for a spouse visa. With the new financial requirements looming, we are in a rush to get Destiny here now. After all this time, hard work, and heartache, we can't go back to square one and have to wait even more years to be together in the UK.

Secondly, we are now experiencing additional and unexpected financial hurdles. Destiny recently received a life-changing health diagnosis and due to the complexity and expense of personal health insurance, the US healthcare system has depleted her savings and put her into rapidly incurring debt. Destiny is going to be okay, but there is still a lot to learn as she navigates these new waters. In addition, I was recently involved in a car accident on the motorway where I was hit by new driver and my car was totaled. The consequences of this accident have been financially costly to me, and I must replace my car for work.

Now, more than ever, we need to be together. The future is not certain, and we can waste no more time, as we endeavour to raise the funds for the entire visa process before the April 2024 rule changes come in. We honestly need help to meet these costs.

After multiple lovely messages from people suggesting this idea, we are now reaching out to our network of family and friends to kindly and vulnerably ask for support to help us reach our goal with the April deadline looming.

We are conscious and sensitive to the fact that times are hard for many, especially in the UK, but anything you could contribute would be so gratefully appreciated and truly help make a difference. Our fundraising goal is £10,000. We humbly thank you in advance for your consideration.

For full transparency, and to give you an understanding of how your donation will help, we’ve put together an outline of the costs to get Destiny over to the UK which total approximately £11,453. If we manage to reach and surpass our goal of £10,000, then we will use these additional funds to get established in the UK as there will undoubtedly be unforeseen costs, especially with Destiny’s medical complications.

Immigration Lawyer: £2,500

Application fee + biometrics: £1866

Fast track service: £500 (which gives a visa decision within 5 days, without which we could be waiting months we don’t have)

Health Care Surcharge - £1,035 per year for 2.5 years = *£2,587

Moving belongings - £3,000

Flight to UK - £1,000