Please help our family stay together!
Donation protected
Please help our wee family stay together and finally bring to an end 5 long years of immigration procedures we have had to go through just to be allowed to stay together.
For those that do not know us personally, Keith is American and I am from Northern Ireland. When we got married in 2014, I moved to the US and started going through the lengthy process of asking for permission to stay with my husband there. This involved a lot of paperwork so complex that it required hiring a lawyer to go through the process with us to make sure everything was in order. We had to keep photographs, documents and any other detailed evidence we could find in order to prove we really were living as a married couple, gather notarized statements from our friends, financial statements, and I had to undergo medical examinations – all stressful and resulting in a constant drain on our finances. The last requirement was to have an interview with Homeland Security where we were asked personal questions about each other and our life as a final proof of whether we really were living as husband and wife. We passed all these tests, and I was granted a temporary residency permit for 2 years, after which we would have to go through the process again in order to obtain permanent residency.
To be allowed that 2 year temporary residency permit, Keith had to show that he could “sponsor” me while I was living in the US. In other words, he had to show that he was in good employment and had enough money to support both of us (to guarantee that I would not be asking for any benefits from the US government during that period of time). Thankfully, he did have proof of that, but the constant immigration fees, lawyer bills and related demands on our money meant that all our savings were used up. But that was the price to be able to be together, and we were just thankful that we were finally able to start our lives together as a married couple.
In 2015, I became pregnant and later that year our daughter was born. But three months after she arrived, Keith suddenly and without any warning *(please see amendment at bottom) lost his job. This would be bad for any couple with a newborn baby…but it was doubly stressful for us because it was a few months before I would receive my permanent residency so I was still having to be sponsored by Keith. Keith losing his job meant I could no longer stay in the US and would have to leave. Not wanting to be split up from each other, we decided to pack up and move back to where I had lived before I met Keith - Newtownards, Northern Ireland - hoping that the UK would allow us all to settle there.
So, we had to give our US house back to the bank in a short-sale (we got absolutely no money from it at all as it was in negative equity), pack up just a few of our most essential possessions (even by choosing the very cheapest way to ship them, we couldn’t afford to take any more), hand back our car (which was being paid for monthly so there was no money back from that either), and spend the very last of our savings on plane tickets to Ireland.
And so the immigration process had to continue for us….it just wasn’t for me to stay in the US anymore, but for Keith to be allowed to stay in the UK now. The requirements for a spouse being allowed to stay in the UK are: either I would have to be already in the UK and earning over £18,600 every year to be able to sponsor Keith, or we would have to have savings of over £60,000 in order to cover the 5 years of temporary residency before being allowed to stay permanently. As we had neither of those requirements, we had to file for Keith to be allowed to stay under the human rights act. That was the only way that our wee family would be allowed to remain together!
The UK government left us for a year - a whole year - without any final word on whether Keith would be allowed to remain or not. During that time he wasn’t allowed to work, even look for work, nor claim benefits which meant I had to claim benefits for our daughter and myself to live on (as we are British citizens). The benefit I receive from the government for myself is calculated to be the minimum amount one person can survive on – but I have to share this with Keith so that we both have food, electric, heating, etc.
After a year of not knowing whether Keith could stay or not, we decided to go and see our local MP to ask him to bring up our case with the Immigration Minister in London in order to get a final decision. Thankfully, finally, they allowed Keith to stay due to Article 8 of the Human Rights Act (i.e. he has a right to a family life with his family in the country where we live). They granted him a two and a half year residency permit, but not much else has changed. Our daughter and I still live off a very small benefit from the UK government as Keith is still not allowed to claim for anything himself (he is on a 5 year probation period during which he is not allowed any help). Twice already, and neither time through our own fault, our daughter’s benefit has been cut or stopped completely and there is currently a threat that they will be reducing it again very soon, even though the government knows how little we are living on.
All Keith wants to do is to be able to support his family and to find work, but out of all the job applications he has sent out he has only been asked for one interview. Every application has either been turned down or ignored. Up until moving to Northern Ireland, Keith had never been unemployed so this situation is very difficult for him. There are very few opportunities as it is, but the lack of a car means that he cannot even apply for some jobs because he would have no way to get to them. Even taking public transport to get to possible interviews is difficult as it takes so much out of such a small allowance of money that we have to live on each week.
And I been living with some serious health issues for over 20 years and the stress of the last 5 years has meant that those conditions have been steadily getting worse so, between bad health and looking after our daughter, I have not been in a good position to try to seek employment to improve our situation either.
Life is difficult for our little family but at least for the meantime they are able to be together. However, this is now at risk too as Keith’s residency permit will be coming to an end soon and we just have no more money to give in order to fight. After a sustained drain on their finances for the last 5 years from the US government, lawyers, UK government and solicitors we have been completely bled dry of any money we had. And, barely having enough to live on day-to-day since moving to the UK, means that we have been unable to save for the next stage of our immigration journey. Soon the government will be demanding more fees to allow Keith to stay, more forms that need a solicitor’s help to file, and if we can’t come up with the money, Keith will have to leave his little daughter and his wife and go back to the US alone because I would not be allowed to stay with him there.
For 5 years we have fought so hard to stay together, putting up with so much instability – not knowing if we will be allowed to stay together, not knowing if our daughter will be allowed to grow up with both her parents, and not being able to start our life together properly anywhere as we haven’t been able to plan for our future or even save any money towards it.
That is why we need your help. We have no one else to turn to – Keith has no close family at all, and I have no-one that I can turn to for help either.
We need to find one final amount of money to cover the immigration fees, solicitor fees and other related fees that would allow us all to stay in the UK.
It is such a simple thing that most people take for granted – to be able to live with your spouse and create a life together. For us it would mean so much. Not having the constant stress and worry of knowing that we could be ripped apart from each other at some point in the future and that our daughter may have to say goodbye to her Daddy for a long time.
We understand that in these times, it can be financially difficult for a lot of people, but if there is any way that any of you reading this can help them gather together enough funds for this next amount of immigration fees, we would deeply appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. We would love nothing more than to be finally settled in Northern Ireland for good, be able to start looking forward and planning for a shared future together, and pay forward the kindness shown to us by giving something back to the community and people who helped us.
* It has come to our attention that, while Keith's redundancy was certainly as sudden and unexpected to us as I have written, leaving us with the financial issues that we have previously stated, there may have been a miscommunication that caused this situation. Therefore those in certain positions of responsibility at his former employment were unaware of the relevant facts and therefore came to decisions based upon possible misinformation.
For those that do not know us personally, Keith is American and I am from Northern Ireland. When we got married in 2014, I moved to the US and started going through the lengthy process of asking for permission to stay with my husband there. This involved a lot of paperwork so complex that it required hiring a lawyer to go through the process with us to make sure everything was in order. We had to keep photographs, documents and any other detailed evidence we could find in order to prove we really were living as a married couple, gather notarized statements from our friends, financial statements, and I had to undergo medical examinations – all stressful and resulting in a constant drain on our finances. The last requirement was to have an interview with Homeland Security where we were asked personal questions about each other and our life as a final proof of whether we really were living as husband and wife. We passed all these tests, and I was granted a temporary residency permit for 2 years, after which we would have to go through the process again in order to obtain permanent residency.
To be allowed that 2 year temporary residency permit, Keith had to show that he could “sponsor” me while I was living in the US. In other words, he had to show that he was in good employment and had enough money to support both of us (to guarantee that I would not be asking for any benefits from the US government during that period of time). Thankfully, he did have proof of that, but the constant immigration fees, lawyer bills and related demands on our money meant that all our savings were used up. But that was the price to be able to be together, and we were just thankful that we were finally able to start our lives together as a married couple.
In 2015, I became pregnant and later that year our daughter was born. But three months after she arrived, Keith suddenly and without any warning *(please see amendment at bottom) lost his job. This would be bad for any couple with a newborn baby…but it was doubly stressful for us because it was a few months before I would receive my permanent residency so I was still having to be sponsored by Keith. Keith losing his job meant I could no longer stay in the US and would have to leave. Not wanting to be split up from each other, we decided to pack up and move back to where I had lived before I met Keith - Newtownards, Northern Ireland - hoping that the UK would allow us all to settle there.
So, we had to give our US house back to the bank in a short-sale (we got absolutely no money from it at all as it was in negative equity), pack up just a few of our most essential possessions (even by choosing the very cheapest way to ship them, we couldn’t afford to take any more), hand back our car (which was being paid for monthly so there was no money back from that either), and spend the very last of our savings on plane tickets to Ireland.
And so the immigration process had to continue for us….it just wasn’t for me to stay in the US anymore, but for Keith to be allowed to stay in the UK now. The requirements for a spouse being allowed to stay in the UK are: either I would have to be already in the UK and earning over £18,600 every year to be able to sponsor Keith, or we would have to have savings of over £60,000 in order to cover the 5 years of temporary residency before being allowed to stay permanently. As we had neither of those requirements, we had to file for Keith to be allowed to stay under the human rights act. That was the only way that our wee family would be allowed to remain together!
The UK government left us for a year - a whole year - without any final word on whether Keith would be allowed to remain or not. During that time he wasn’t allowed to work, even look for work, nor claim benefits which meant I had to claim benefits for our daughter and myself to live on (as we are British citizens). The benefit I receive from the government for myself is calculated to be the minimum amount one person can survive on – but I have to share this with Keith so that we both have food, electric, heating, etc.
After a year of not knowing whether Keith could stay or not, we decided to go and see our local MP to ask him to bring up our case with the Immigration Minister in London in order to get a final decision. Thankfully, finally, they allowed Keith to stay due to Article 8 of the Human Rights Act (i.e. he has a right to a family life with his family in the country where we live). They granted him a two and a half year residency permit, but not much else has changed. Our daughter and I still live off a very small benefit from the UK government as Keith is still not allowed to claim for anything himself (he is on a 5 year probation period during which he is not allowed any help). Twice already, and neither time through our own fault, our daughter’s benefit has been cut or stopped completely and there is currently a threat that they will be reducing it again very soon, even though the government knows how little we are living on.
All Keith wants to do is to be able to support his family and to find work, but out of all the job applications he has sent out he has only been asked for one interview. Every application has either been turned down or ignored. Up until moving to Northern Ireland, Keith had never been unemployed so this situation is very difficult for him. There are very few opportunities as it is, but the lack of a car means that he cannot even apply for some jobs because he would have no way to get to them. Even taking public transport to get to possible interviews is difficult as it takes so much out of such a small allowance of money that we have to live on each week.
And I been living with some serious health issues for over 20 years and the stress of the last 5 years has meant that those conditions have been steadily getting worse so, between bad health and looking after our daughter, I have not been in a good position to try to seek employment to improve our situation either.
Life is difficult for our little family but at least for the meantime they are able to be together. However, this is now at risk too as Keith’s residency permit will be coming to an end soon and we just have no more money to give in order to fight. After a sustained drain on their finances for the last 5 years from the US government, lawyers, UK government and solicitors we have been completely bled dry of any money we had. And, barely having enough to live on day-to-day since moving to the UK, means that we have been unable to save for the next stage of our immigration journey. Soon the government will be demanding more fees to allow Keith to stay, more forms that need a solicitor’s help to file, and if we can’t come up with the money, Keith will have to leave his little daughter and his wife and go back to the US alone because I would not be allowed to stay with him there.
For 5 years we have fought so hard to stay together, putting up with so much instability – not knowing if we will be allowed to stay together, not knowing if our daughter will be allowed to grow up with both her parents, and not being able to start our life together properly anywhere as we haven’t been able to plan for our future or even save any money towards it.
That is why we need your help. We have no one else to turn to – Keith has no close family at all, and I have no-one that I can turn to for help either.
We need to find one final amount of money to cover the immigration fees, solicitor fees and other related fees that would allow us all to stay in the UK.
It is such a simple thing that most people take for granted – to be able to live with your spouse and create a life together. For us it would mean so much. Not having the constant stress and worry of knowing that we could be ripped apart from each other at some point in the future and that our daughter may have to say goodbye to her Daddy for a long time.
We understand that in these times, it can be financially difficult for a lot of people, but if there is any way that any of you reading this can help them gather together enough funds for this next amount of immigration fees, we would deeply appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. We would love nothing more than to be finally settled in Northern Ireland for good, be able to start looking forward and planning for a shared future together, and pay forward the kindness shown to us by giving something back to the community and people who helped us.
* It has come to our attention that, while Keith's redundancy was certainly as sudden and unexpected to us as I have written, leaving us with the financial issues that we have previously stated, there may have been a miscommunication that caused this situation. Therefore those in certain positions of responsibility at his former employment were unaware of the relevant facts and therefore came to decisions based upon possible misinformation.
Organizer
Caroline Rideau
Organizer
