Sorry it's been a while, but I could not believe what happened in court.
Immigration Advisory Service and I pepared a bundle, never anticipated a real problem as evidence way beyond balance of probabilities. You all know the shocking evidence missed by the ECO.
I was advised to withdraw when the judge was identified. I wanted to fight on. We referred to a barrister. We were advised not to go against this judge.
Why? He is a known refuser, conservative in outlook etc. etc. Our case still rested on the intentions of my wife, as she is a fiancee until we get the marriage recorded officially in Indonesia or over here. This judge, I was told, would simply not rule in our favour. Not because we did not have enough evidence, but because he can give his opinion. An appeal would take even longer, at a higher court, and a refusal would "embolden" the ECO's at Jakarta and make a refusal on next application more likely.
I have experience in courts as professional witness. He was stern, pedantic, and unhelpful in the case before ours. On the advice, and I won't go into more detail, I withdrew.
Before we even had chance to speak he struck off the argument that expenses incurred in speaking daily to my wife etc. (£150 pcm) could be added back into my income. WTF! This is a logical and fair argument - accepted by many judges from a previous upheld decision. However, he threw it out as it was not set at a high enough court to become case law, and he was "not in favour of accepting, so unless you can tell me there has been some recent decision that says I am bound to accept it I am inclined to refuse". My income is enough without it, but only just. (£1400 pcm)
The advice is to go to Indonesia, get the marriage officially noted and then apply (£500 Kerching!) for a spouse visa. The IAS do not expect Jakarta to approve it given the nonsense on the previous decisions, but say it will win appeal. They have that little confidencein the ECO's there.
My problem:-
Nobody involved in my case thinks the decision by the ECO was right.
The government spent 6-months before responding to the appeal.
They want a further £500, and will probably say no with a further 6-month minimum appeal.
I have lost over £5,000 in the last year and still do not have my wife here.
I am self employed, will have to borrow £3,000 to go over and marry, given the time to sort documents/passport/application out.
We will not be any more "Married" as the ceremony we had stands - it just needs the official stamp. (After 10 days 'notice', we take the village marriage certificate, photos and my papers and the document is issued that day.)
I cannot get a "Certificate of Non Impediment" (CNI) as the senior registrar here in the UK says the ceremony we had is valid - so they will not give me the document needed by the Indonesian Authorities as they cannot say there is no impediment to marry when I already am! (The bitter irony is the ECO's main refusal was intention to marry!
)Without this document, I cannot satisfy the Immigration ECO for a spouse visa.
The recommendation from the registrar was that I get a letter from the Indonesian government to say the wedding was not valid. They won't, as it is valid at one level. The other suggestion was to divorce over their, return to the UK and show them, get the CNI and return to Indonesia to marry! (I'm checking into this as this appears to be the catch-22 to end them all.)
When we apply, they will doubt my ability to pay for her as I will have drained my bank account - because they forced me into this action!
How bad can it get! I could not believe the advice I was given, and am still in shock. We are a genuine couple. Everyone can see that. WTF is going on. If I had intended to go out and get married, I would have taken a CNI, my Decree absolute, birth certificate etc. I didn't, and assumed that would be understood. That's why we applied for a fiancee visa. I can keep my wife finanially, just not fly out three times a year, suspending my income, and all those costs just to keep the bloody home office happy!
So, I have just had a most horrendous discussion with my daughter and decided to give up my chosen career, retrain as a teacher, and leave this godforsaken country to live with my wife somewhere else. I am still distressed. How did we get to the stage that an englishman is forced into such a set of circumstances by the government?
I don't want to give up my job. I sold my house and retrained for it in the first place. I don't want to leave my daughter for over a year in her early teen years. What choice do I have. I don't want to leave my wife alone in her country for another year.
In 10 minutes, a bigotted, dearly beloved, elitist, xenophobic, middle class ECO, has f**ked my life up and nobody gives a shit!
Sorry, but that's the truth of the matter.
DavidJ.
(Distressed and very angry.)