Dave, you need to take a chill pill. Your family is not going to be split apart. Let me point out some errors in your website. I'll quote directly from your site.
Failure to pass this test would result in the resident being unable to claim a visa and there for having to leave the country.
Incorrect. Failure to pass the test results in not being able to apply for ILR. Just because you cannot apply for ILR does not mean you have to leave the country. For example if you are on a spouse visa, it can simply be renewed if you cannot pass the test.
Our family is there for under threat. We will not be able to claim indefinite leave to remain and my wife will not be able to live here with us.
This is complete and utter rubbish. If your wife is not ready to take the test and cannot obtain ILR she can simply renew her spouse visa. There is absolutely no threat of her being kicked out of the country or your family breaking apart, as you claim.
My first concern with the test is who it targets. As far as I am aware any citizen from any of the 27 countries with in the EU has a right to reside in the UK indefinitely with out a visa. There for this test does not apply to them. So peoples concerns about the huge influx of foreigners many of whom are from the EU, and in particular the eastern block seem to think that this test applies to them where in fact it does not.
ANYONE, including EU citizens, who wants to obtain British citizenship, will, at some stage, have to pass the Life in the UK test. Whether this is at the ILR stage (for non-EU citizens) or actual naturalisation (for EU citizens) everyone ultimately has to pass this test.
I have also noted in my research that foreign-born Imams are immune from this test. So it seems straight away that this test is not fair in the fact that it does not target everybody only a select few.
This is incorrect. If an Imam wants to obtain ILR they will have to write the test like anyone else.
So who does this test target? As I mentioned earlier it seems to target those foreign people who are married to a British Citizen.
Incorrect again. Everyone who wants to obtain ILR and British citizenship has to write this test. Noone is being targeted.
Originally the test was only for those wanting to give up their nationality and claim British citizenship. However the government saw fit to extend the test to those who wish to claim indefinite leave to remain. There is a huge difference between these two. Somebody who wants to claim citizenship wants to reside here for the rest of their life, they want to give up their nationality and become British. Somebody who wishes to apply for the indefinite leave to remain visa does not; they will live between two countries and will not give up their native citizenship.
Incorrect again. Not everyone has to give up their original citizenship in order to become a British citizen. The vast majority of people who become British citizens keep their original citizenships and are dual citizens (some people even have 3 or more nationalities). Furthermore, just because you become a British citizen does not mean that you want to live here for the rest of your life. Many people find having a British passport much more convenient for world travel.
The only other option available to us is to keep buying 400 pound 2year visas which I can not afford to do. I also do not see why I should pay 400 pounds every 2 years for my wife to stay part of our family. If you have that sort of money you could in theory stay here indefinitely on a spouse visa, so why hold back on giving indefinite leave to remain to spouses?
So you admit that actually DO have another option if your wife cannot pass the Life in the UK test. You can't afford £400 every 2 years? But you can afford to live between 2 different countries? Geez guy, something doesn't add up here. £400 divided by 24 months is £16.66 per month. You're saying you can't afford to put away £16.66 every month for a visa so that your wife can stay in the country?
The test requires you to be fluent in English as it uses very complex language. My wife's level of English is not yet at that stage. To expect a foreigner to become a fluent English speaker within 2 years of living here is just plain crazy. I lived in Japan for 4 years and while I am a good speaker of conversational Japanese I am by no means fluent. That would take 8 years or longer.
Sorry to say that 2 years is plenty of time to become fluent in English if you willing to make the effort. I know many non-English speakers who have come to the UK with hardly any English and become quite fluent within a few months.
This deeply irritates me as I am British, our baby is British but his mother, my wife isn't seen to have the same right to live here. As I work I pay taxes to the country and I then have to pay extra money to keep my family together. Surely somebody married to a British citizen with a family should have a natural right to reside here.
Your wife has been given a (renewable) spouse visa to live here. You should be grateful for that. Many people struggle to even get spouse visas for their wives or husbands to join them in the UK. And you're moaning because your wife is expected to speak English? In England?
I mean if anybody from Poland can come here go the job centre pick up a Polish leaflet and stay here as long as they like, can my wife not have the same right?
No she can't. Japan is not part of the EU.
The 400 pound 2 year visa is too expensive for me to afford. In Japan the same visa costs 20 pounds! If the price here was the same I wouldn't mind but it isn't. There for we wish to apply for indefinite leave to remain but it appears we aren't British enough to do it yet.
Again, £16.66 per month! That's a few pints down at your local.
If any foreigner has a right to live here surely it must those who are married to a UK citizen and have a family, rather than those who have no connection, such as immigrants from the EU.
Actually, immigrants from the EU do have a connection to the UK. It's called the EUROPEAN UNION.
Oh and finally let us not forget article 16 of the human rights act that states it is a basic human right to be able to live with your family.
Noone is trying to separate you from your family. Your wife has a spouse visa and is with you here.
In a few years time we'll look back on immigration control like we look back on American prohibition in the thirties - futile and counter-productive.
