Help Oopie stay in the UK

My name’s Iggy, and I’m asking for your help so that my best friend Oopie -- Opashona Ghosh -- can settle in the country they have called home for their entire adult life. After meeting when we both moved to London in our early twenties, we have come of age and built our lives in this city alongside one another. We’re both Londoners, but while I’ve always been recognised as such by the government, Oopie has had to fight again and again for their right to be here. Please read their story, share widely, and donate anything you are able to towards their legal fees, so that they can finally have the security of settled status that they always should have had.

In Oopie’s words:

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About Me

I’m a 37-year-old queer artist and ex-raver from Kolkata who’s been living, studying and working in London since 2012. I’m an artist, designer, and a passionate educator. As a lecturer for the University of the Arts London, my approach is rooted in decolonisation, anti-capitalism and disability justice. I work hard to destigmatise and empower international students, to build multilingual and accessible curriculums, and to teach everyone how to centre access in their design. It’s so important for people like me to be in these roles in this country. I also help to build alternative educational spaces beyond the institution.

You may also know me from dancing next to me at every queer club night and squat party in London. I’ve made posters for dozens of queer clubnights across the UK, worked in harm reduction and welfare, and for the past 2 years have been running the anti-clubnight clubnight Forecast. Forecast is inspired by the ethos of harm reduction, anti-capitalism and radical softness, and was created in reaction to the lack of care shown to the audience and nightlife workers in commercial club spaces.

I’m a great supporter of my friends and their projects, and I love to collaborate with them to create safe, restful and inspiring community spaces. I help to create opportunities for creativity and radical rest for queer, neurodivergent and disabled community, including my ‘desire lines’ event series in collaboration with El Hardwick, and I platform queer, BPOC and disabled voices through DIY publishing project Honey.

I love my friends and my communities, and I have built a beautiful family in this country over the past 13 years.

I've spent that time 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 live with chronic illnesses, many of which have been produced or exacerbated by the impact of long-term precarious citizenship. 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 five-year Global Talent Visa – which is also the end of my right to live in the UK, unless I make a new visa application before 24 September.

I’m newly eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), an immigration status that’s my best option for long-term stability here. This will be my eventual route to British citizenship, which will finally give the freedom to travel without the many restrictions imposed on Indian nationals that have hampered my artistic career. With ILR, for the first time, I’ll be able to use the NHS for free, vote, access benefits including PIP, and have some breathing space to find secure housing. Being granted ILR will be a significant milestone that will bring me one step closer to ending my expensive and re-traumatising relationship with the Home Office, and finally being free to simply live my life in the country I call home. I’m really lucky to be eligible for apply for ILR this year, because the White Paper that is set to come into force will make it even harder for people like me to remain in this country long term in the future.

Despite working for a prestigious institution, like most university workers in the UK I’m on a short-term, under-paid contract and don’t make enough to have savings. I live paycheck to paycheck, pour any money I can spare into community projects and mutual aid, and have no external financial support.

Where’s the money going?

I need to raise £6200 to make my ILR application before 24 September. Here’s a cost breakdown:

- £3029: Indefinite Leave to Remain application fee

- £1000: Priority processing service (rather than waiting up to 6 months in which I can’t travel outside the UK/see family)

- £1680: Lawyer’s fee

- £60: UKVCAS biometrics and appointment booking fees

- £79: Life in the UK test booking fee

- £330: Estimated GoFundMe transaction fee

Any additional funds raised will go to FiveForFive, a grassroots mutual aid for trans women and femmes in the UK.

Thank you!

Thank you SO much for reading this far, and for your generosity and support, whether that’s by donating or sharing this fundraiser far and wide.

It’s hard for me to ask for money, and it makes me angry that I have to go through this process and repeatedly raise huge sums in order to stay in my city, but I am holding on to the encouragement and support of my friends and chosen family to reach out and ask for help. I deeply appreciate anything you are able to share.