<div><strong>Who I Am</strong>
</div>
<div>My name is Robert Berg and I’m raising funds to help me continue to live and work in the UK. My current visa expires in late October and I’m so close to being able to officially call this place home, but I need to secure up to £9000 to do it.
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<div>I moved to London from the USA with my husband nearly 10 years ago and absolutely fell in love with this place. It’s where my heart lives. My friends are here, I’ve found a family amongst the London queer community, my entire professional network is here, but if I can’t come up with enough money to pay the insanely high application fees, I'll be kicked out of the country.
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<div><strong>Why I Need Your Help</strong>
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<div>To make matters worse, the current government is considering extensive changes to the immigration process, which is not only making my situation increasingly perilous, but it’s also making an already-stressful process exponentially worse. You see, the government has not yet finalised the new rules, nor have they announced when they will go into effect. It makes it very hard to plan for a massive, life-changing expense.
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<div>So I know I will need to pay thousands of pounds, but I still do not know <strong><em>how many</em></strong> thousands of pounds.
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<div>Under the current system, the various application, testing, and appointment fees will probably cost me around <strong>£5000</strong>. This will allow me to secure Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), which is the next closest thing to citizenship. It would also mean I could finally, finally feel safe in calling the UK home.
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<div>Under the planned new rules, however, I would no longer be allowed to apply for ILR, and would have to instead apply for <strong>yet another visa</strong>. And it would be much more expensive. I would need to pay a health care surcharge (upfront) for five years, the application fee, costs to schedule an appointment, and more—all of which would cost me around <strong>£9000</strong>. And of course, it is a visa, so once again my time here would be on a ticking clock.
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<div>Do I know which set of rules will apply to me when the time comes? No. Does it matter that I have lived, worked, and paid taxes here for nearly 10 years? No. Has the government indicated when they might announce the changes? No. <strong>The rules could literally change at any minute</strong>, and there’s nothing I can do about it except secure as much money as I can. This also means it’s vital that I apply as soon as humanly possible, in the hopes of saving thousands of pounds and securing ILR (and my UK home).
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<div><strong>And an Added Complication</strong>
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<div>I have been saving for this application for years, but over the last several months I have had vital projects with long-term clients cancelled at the last minute. I work freelance as a professional copy editor and proofreader, so the last-minute change not only cost me thousands of pounds in lost income, but I was unable to replace the work at such short notice, and had to use my savings to pay for rent and food and bills.
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<div>I have work lined up for the future, but it is not going to be enough, or soon enough, for the application date I absolutely need to hit: <strong>27 October 2026</strong>. So I <strong>only have 2 months</strong> to raise the necessary funds, or face going back to a country where queer people are routinely referred to as “groomers” and librarians are threatened with guns because they dared to stock queer books.
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<div><strong>How You Can Help</strong>
</div>
<div>It’s a tough time across the world right now, and I’m very conscious how lucky I am to have this chance to stay in the country that has become my home. It’s not easy to ask this, as I know many of us are struggling, but any <strong>donation</strong> or <strong>sharing</strong> of this fundraiser would be truly helpful and life-changing.
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<div><strong>What I'd Like to Offer in Return</strong>
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<div>I would love to make this process less of a donation and more of an exchange wherever possible, so if you have any writing that you need copy edited or proofread, I will be sending a voucher code as a thank you to everyone who donates. The code will get you (or one of your friends!) 15% off my usual rates (£0.02/word for copy editing and £0.01/word for proofreading).
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<div><strong>Thank you so much for reading, and I appreciate anything you are able to donate.</strong>
</div>

Anonymous

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Help Me Stay in the UK For Good (After 10 Years Living Here)

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

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OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

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US + Non-charity COs Only

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fund country is US and user language is English

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GoFundMe Employees

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Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

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checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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UKCharities

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US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

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Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

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Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

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openai

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Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

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Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

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challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Help Me Stay in the UK For Good (After 10 Years Living Here)

Still £3,716 to go. Help us build momentum.