Like the Chinese scientist who was denied a UK visa for her baby (“Anger over visa rules as scholar forced to quit Oxford”, News, 17 May), my husband, a senior lecturer at Bournemouth University, and I had to separate our family because we could not afford the visa costs to stay together.
When we came to the UK from the US three years ago, we paid the visa fees for me and our son out of our own pockets, while the university covered my husband’s Tier 2 visa fees.
But by the time it came to renew our visas, prices had soared and, with the addition of another son while we were living in the UK, we simply could not afford the cost. So now my husband is staying at the university and our two boys and I are living in my parents’ home to save some money. It is horrible. I was also working in the restaurant industry in the UK so it’s not as if we were not paying into the system.
Now my husband is missing out on seeing his nine-month-old and 10-year-old sons. This has been the hardest thing to deal with. No one should have to make a decision to split up a family because of thousands of dollars just to get a stamp on a passport.
Shanana1202
Via www.timeshighereducation.com
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