My wife and I are Indian nationals, settled in the UK with an Indefinite Leave to Remain and looking to go for UK nationality in the coming months. We had decided to stay here with the intent of settling down, provided my widowed mother would be able to join us here as a dependent adult relative once she attained the age of 65 years, as per the Immigration Laws at the time.
Now that she has very recently turned 65, we realized the latest changes to Immigration Law passed on 9th July 2012 do not allow her the option to stay with us as a parent in a gracefully healthy state but increasingly dependent nevertheless.
As mentioned in the Introduction in The Statement of Intent : Family Immigration document published by the Home Office, point 17 states -
"non-EEA adult dependent relatives will only be able to settle in the UK if they can demonstrate that, as a result of age, illness or disability, they require a level of long-term personal care that can only be provided in the UK by their relative here and without recourse to public funds"
(
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... am-mig.pdf)
I would like to humbly but firmly register my unhappiness and disappointment with this rule. The rule goes against quite a few human values and common sense, to say the least. It also suggests that the rhetoric about promoting healthier family ties for a better country are just that - words from politicians.
Further, I would request you to please take it up at the appropriate discussions in the House of Commons with the following to support my position and that of others affected by the changes -
1) My wife and I are both working with a healthy tax payments of 22% and 40% respectively over the last 6 years, entering the increasingly rare club of contributors to the UK economy without access to public funds.. We also contribute to the economy like every other sincere citizen by means of NHS contributions, VAT, council tax, TV license, charity contributions and many more.
2) As per Indian culture, it is my duty and right to be able to support my dependent parents. This duty is not expected to be passed on by paying off a maid or healthcare workers or asking some relative to do it for you, as the new rule suggests. This is a duty of a son or daughter, taken as a path to fulfill one's 'Dharma' - way of life.
People might consider me to be a religious person but I know the right values form wrong ones. I do honestly believe that the UK society has open arms for people of any culture. Taking care of aging parents is a matter of deep rooted culture that comes with immigrants to the shores of UK and therefore should be accepted.
3) As I understand, the economic state of affairs in UK, particularly the financial condition of old age homes, has shown that taking care of one's own parents is the most appropriate, wise and natural thing to do in this day and age. Even for someone not tied to the Indian culture.
The said changes to the Immigration policy above promotes exactly the opposite.
4) We have come to settle here, fully abiding with the laws of Immigration and otherwise. The laws at the time of our decision to settle expected us to wait for having our dependent parents join us when they need us to be with them. Given the recent change as per the rule above, it feels like being cheated as the lawmakers have suddenly changed their mind about how we treat our parents. If there is a genuine case for the new restrictions to apply, at the very least it needs to be applied with some transitional arrangements in place for this category of applicants, just like all other categories.
5) My request for staying here, working here and then settling here were all based on how much I could earn and contribute to the economy with my skills as a professional. Apparently, UK wants me to continue working at least at my current level and therefore would like me to stay here as a human being. If the lawmakers were to apply a preferential treatment to one set of immigrants only (EEA nationals), it might be a better consideration to provide better rights to those contributing more to the economy. That is immigrants like me coming through the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme or its equivalent.
It is not my case that EEA immigrants might or might not be contributing as much to the UK economy as immigrants from Non-EEA countries arriving via Highly Skilled Migrant Programmes. In fact, I believe everyone has the same right and duty to support their dependent parents.
To close, I would re-iterate that the changes to this law are a big factor in deciding the future of my family's stay here. As I see it, a win-win situation for both United Kingdom and me as an Immigrant, economically, culturally and on humanitarian grounds would be to allow me to request a dependent Visa for my dependent mother. I would very much like to stay here with my dignity and humanity intact rather than go out again looking for a country that values me as a human and not just another set of hands paying to the treasury, expecting me to give up my culture, values and parents in return.