Help Jack Stay in the UK (For Good!)

Hi! My name's Jack, and I'm asking for help to settle in the country I've called home my entire adult life.

About Me

I’m a 31-year-old American gay trans man who’s been studying and working in the UK since 2010. I live and teach history in Oxford, where I work as the University's first-ever named lecturer in LGBTQ history. I also have a long history as a community organiser, frontline crisis worker, and educator for marginalised groups across the UK.

I'm especially proud of co-founding Oxford Mutual Aid, which provides food and community support across Oxfordshire, and setting up the Spectra Trans Health Advocacy Service, one of the UK's leading resources for trans health advocacy, information, and support. I love hiking, theatre, tarot, swimming, sci-fi, dancing, and time with my friends and chosen family, most of whom are UK-based.

I've spent the past 13 years living in the UK on a series of short-term visas in an increasingly hostile anti-immigration political climate. This has been a huge shaping factor on my entire adult life – it's impacted all my major relationships, my career, housing, and physical and mental health. I'm finally eligible for long-term residency – but urgently need some help for the last push.

Why am I crowdfunding?

I’m coming to the end of my current work contract – which is also the end of my right to live in the UK (and my ability to take up an offer of more work) unless I make a new visa application before 30 September.

I’m newly eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), an immigration status that’s my best option for long-term stability here. Having ILR will mean I’m no longer tied to specific short-term work/study to live in the UK and can finally make long-term plans for my life here. I’ll be able to use the NHS for free, vote, travel easier, access benefits, and have some breathing space to find secure employment/housing. It’ll also (hopefully) be my last big expensive battle with the Home Office, which has cost me/my community/my employers tens of thousands of pounds and a lot of my sanity over the years.

Despite working at an elite institution, like most young academics in the UK I’m on a short-term, under-paid contract and don’t make enough to have savings. I live pay cheque to pay cheque, supplement my income with 3-4 side gigs, and have no external financial support. My employer will only cover costs for new work visas and can’t help with ILR. Under new Tory policy, visa application fees are set to go up yet again within the next month or two, so I need to apply as soon as possible.

I’m happy to give details or answer questions about my financial situation for anyone donating. For more info about academic precarity in the UK and why we’ve been on strike/marking boycott this past year: https://www.ucu.org.uk/rising

Where’s the money going?

I need to raise £3454 to make my ILR application before 30 September. Here’s a cost breakdown:

- £2404: Indefinite Leave to Remain application fee

- £800: Priority processing service (rather than potentially 6 months in which I can’t travel outside the UK/see family)

- £200: UKVCAS biometrics and appointment booking fees

- £50: Life in the UK test booking fee

Any additional funds raised will go to Black Beetle Health and African Rainbow Family, UK-based organisations supporting Black queer people to access healthcare, housing, and immigration/asylum support.

Thank you!

Between medical transition and immigration – both costly, inaccessible things in the UK – I've asked for a lot of community financial support over the years. I hate doing this again and hope this’ll be the last time, but know full well how much love and support I have here and abroad. Thank you for sharing, donating, and spreading the word!