Our story.....

Just to add another testimonial:

I think I am in a slightly better position than some here as if I get a job in the UK, it will pay enough. However, I live in Bangkok at the moment and will have to time the Visa application quite precisely to avoid falling foul of my Thai Visa, and to be home in time to start the new job. Most problematically, despite my uninterrupted employment over the last 8 years, it is not easy to secure the sort of teaching job I will need for the Visa from abroad. Teaching interviews will usually require lesson observations and that's not possible over Skype with a time difference of 6 or 7 hours.

So I have somewhere to live and could work as a supply teacher and still earn enough; my partner is a high level chef and a graduate with excellent English; my parents are willing to be our guarantors (in the unlikely event we will need them); and we have saved up money over the last year despite having paid for IVF and a wedding in Vietnam - but we are stuck with the requirement that we'll have to find 62500GBP. At the time we want to go, all this means that we will be separating the twins who'll be 18 months old from their second parent (who is my Civil Partner in UK law, and as such will register in UK law as their other legal parent when the kids are born).

We just can't believe how the Government could feel justified in splitting up a young family with so much to give to the country, to each other, and to effectively rip all our dreams apart before they have begun. Before we found out about these changes, we were on a high - so excited about our new commitment to one another and building a life together in the UK, buying a home, to raising our chilldren.... Now everything is uncertain and as a pregnant woman and a planner, it's incredibly stressful.

The Home secretary has reduced us all to a set of rigid, immovable numbers. All of us in all our infinite variety, with our differing circumstances and our partners from all over the world are united in being stripped of our right to a personal life and to love whom we choose. We have all fallen foul of the timing, and the country isn't behind us. It feels like nobody is. Our petitions have only a handful of signatories and there is no sensible legal advice to be had yet as the rules are in such a mess and the first Visa applications are only just going through. Where can we turn?

I know I am luckier than some as I am together with my partner and we have a home and jobs. However, I never moved to Thailand as a permanent home, and being told you are very likely to have to choose between your home - culture, background, friends, wider family- and your life partner makes living in Bangkok seem like a prison. I didn't mean to fall in love here, and had I known that something might mean I could never return to the UK, I might never have come! Certainly had I known about these rules in time, I would have apologised to my workplace, handed in my resignation to them and my partner's application to the UKBA this June.

You sound in a similar position to me. Nine years of work in Thailand but of course the salary is not going to be able to match requirements. Have saved etc but no where near enough .Trying to match things with my visa here to not cause additional problems. Searching for work on the net and sending applications but am aware of time scales of possible interviews causing another hiccup.