email sent to Chris Bryant, MP

I sent the following email to Chris tonight:
______________________________________

Dear Chris,
I’m writing to you from the United States. My partner is a British citizen in Yorkshire. I am a US citizen. I wanted to share our difficult story with you as I’ve heard that you are interested in hearing about the negative impact Mrs. May’s new rules are having on British citizens and their families.

I finally met the one person I cannot live without over two and a half years ago. We plan to marry in the United States sometime early next year.

Then, she has to go back to the UK and I have no idea when we’ll actually get to live together in the same country.

My partner has the misfortune of living in a part of England where the average salaries (and cost of living) are lower than the national average. Although she has minimal expenses and can afford to live on her own and support me until I obtain employment myself, she doesn’t meet the income threshold, nor does her savings account contain the small fortune required to offset the deficit.

Mrs. May would probably say that my partner should just go abroad then. But she can’t.

Although same sex marriage and/or civil unions are legal and practiced in several states, the US federal government does not recognize them for the purposes of immigration. This means that either I go to the UK, or we’re stuck living apart. Most bi national couples at least have the option of going to the foreign partner’s country, undesirable as it may be. We don’t even have that option.

We’re going to be looking into possibly applying for a spouse visa anyway, claiming an exemption from the income requirement because there is literally no other option for us to be together. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get anywhere, but it’s worth a shot.

All we want is to be together at last. I am not close to my family and I do not have any close friends here in the states. My partner is all I have. We talk every single night on the phone, and once we hang up, I spend at least a few minutes crying, and I pray that somehow, the rules will change.

I’m all alone in a country that is no longer my home. I am an American, but my heart, my everything, is in England with my baby.

Thank you for reading. You may share my story with others, but please keep my name confidential.

Sincerely,

<name retracted>, USA

Snowbird,

Very good piece you have typed up, it just proves that Miss May does not give us a choice with these rules. For some "excile" is not an option. My partner is from a third world country, our relationship is purely based on love, if I left my country, my career, to live with my partner it would put me in poverty and I would not be able to support my partner as I am now, she is extremely healthy since I have 2 good jobs and can support her from the UK, but we are both depressed and I am bitterly jealous of seeing couples in the street, holding hands. I hate this, but I'm determined to fight like a spartan.

When I read your letter I too teared up.

Sounds like we have a lot in common. I too met the one person I cannot live without, I too do not have friends or family here (except my 2 children), I too speak with my husband every single day and when we get off the phone spend the rest of my evening alone and usually crying.

SHAME ON MAY! SHAME ON CAMERON! AND NOW SHAME ON HARPER!!

What they are doing is morally and legally wromg. They "snuck" in these back-door changes and don't even care the heartache and stress and lonliness and pain they have caused.

I feel your pain Snowbird and you are not alone, unfortunately none of us that feel this pain are alone. There are many of us that are suffering and scared and hurt by these dictators... these racist/sexist/elitest bullies. The coalition will fail, the tory's will lose and all of us that are having our families held hostage by May and her gang for 18,600 (or more) will be together. We have to be strong, have faith in our love and we will prevail.

Thank you Chris for giving us this space to connect and feel as we are not so alone

The labour MP , Chris Bryant, should be asked if he would raise the issue in parliament if it can be proved that the only reason for the new draconian regulations on family immigration, which are causing so much pain and anguish to genuine Uk citizens and their none EU partners , is to help the tory re-election prospects in 2015 . If it is NOT the only reason , why is it necessary for Ministers such as Damien Green to make false statements on TV programmes such as daily politics ( "smattering of english" comment to Andrew Neil which went unchallenged by Neil !) to deceive the British public ?

hi everyone - is anyone in the area of Slough? I sent emails of my family's story to several MP's, one being Fiona MacTaggart, here is her response:

Dear Toni Morris



Thank you for your email, I am so sorry to hear of the problems you have faced in being together with your husband either in the UK or in Canada, and the very unfortunate timing when you decided to return. You may have seen that I spoke against this rule change in the immigration debate in Parliament last week, and your situation is an example of the problems I was thinking about. But from what you write I do not see any easy solution for your family, unless your husband is able to get a more highly-paid job.



But there are strict UK parliamentary conventions that MPs cannot take up the cases of people who do not live in their constituencies, and you do not say where your husband is living. If he lives in my constituency of Slough, please do ask him to get in touch direct, with his full address and postcode. If he does not, he can find out who his on MP is from www.parliament.uk and should get in touch with him or her to show what the rule change means.



There are organisations campaigning against the rule change, and your story could be helpful in continuing work against this. If you don’t already know of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, www.jcwi.org.uk or the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, www.ilpa.org.uk you might want to get in touch to tell them of your situation for use in continued lobbying against the rule change.



*** Fiona seems to be sensitive to our cause so anyone in her area please contact her and tell he your family story. Good luck all

I feel ignored.

Snowbird,

Has Chris still not replied to you e-mail? If not, I would seriously consider sending it again.

No reply to me either. Very disappointing.