Once Wai-Liang and I had decided to be a couple, the problem became different. How could we stay together as a couple here in the UK. The rules brought in by the new Labour government were daunting: a four-year relationship had to be proved before the Immigration and Naturalisation Directorate would grant leave to remain to the non-British partner. We just stayed together and waited.
In the late 90's, the same Government relaxed the rules a bit, making a 2-year relationship standard for both same-sex and heterosexual relationships between people who were not married, or who could not get married. We now qualified in October of 2000. Wai-Liang's student visa expired in October 2001. Thus, we waited a while.
| Immigration and Naturalisation Directorate |
This is the homepage of the Immigration and Naturalisation Directorate, the department of the Home Office which handles immigration and naturalisation. It is fairly comprehensive. Once you get in it it's great. They continually revise it, but I believe you can navigate from this index page. |
| Unmarried partner immigration |
This is the section of the IND website specifically dealing with same-sex partner immigration into the UK. All the forms are linked to this page. |
| Stonewall Immigration Group |
For years the Stonewall Immigration Group had been campaigning for the concession allowing the non-British partner in an unmarried same-sex partnership to immigrate to the UK. This fight was won when the Labour government made this concession early in its first term of office. Now they concentrate on helping people take advantage of the concession and campaigning for the concession to be put into effect across Europe. Read about them here. |
When we decided to apply, early in 2001, we looked around for a lawyer. The one who we finally chose was a member of my gym, and was recommended by one of Bom's friends who had used him to gain his right to remain here.
We made an appointment with him, and he gave us advice on how to make up the application dossier. His advice boiled down to this:
| Put it in a binder. That way it all stays together. We bought a clear-covered binder and clear plastic pockets, into which we put the application, our passports, and the supporting documentation. |
| Get letters supporting your application from friends, especially if they have a title/position that might give the application more weight. We got many friends from St. Matthew's, other friends, our Rector, a former curate, and a friend who is a professor at Birkbeck to support us with letters. We are extremely grateful to all our friends who supported us with letters. I am certain that our success is in a great measure due to your friendship and your kind words. |
| Get lots of pictures of the two of you in different situations together, such as parties, at home, and with friends. This will show the Home Office that you are seen as a couple by other people and that you are together in diverse situations. We got quite a few pictures and attached them to paper backing explaining the venue and situation and giving dates. |
| Ensure that you have correspondence addressed to each of you at the same address over the period of time you are claiming to be partners. We used bank statements, but the lawyer said, "Everyone has a mobile phone now." and we had to admit that Wai-Liang doesn't have one. |
| Ensure that the bank statements and pay slips demonstrating that the British partner can support and has supported you both are clear and included in the application. |
We went to the lawyer, he said that it was good and he didn't see any reason why the Home Office wouldn't approve it, and he sent it off in July.
We waited...and waited. We got a receipt from the Home Office, but it had no reference number on it. We called the lawyer, and he said it wasn't a problem and that the Home Office would be able to find the application through Wai-Liang's date of birth.
We waited, and waited, and waited some more. Our birthdays passed, then Christmas and New Year. So, we asked the lawyer to call the Home Office to find out what was happening. He called us back and said that the Home Office couldn't find our application!
Shock! Horror! The Home Office had already lost my US passport during my citizenship application period. Had they now lost my British passport (and Wai-Liang's too)?
All this waiting and worrying takes a lot out of you. Wai-Liang, of course, had a lot to lose in that he couldn't work during the time that the application was being considered. I had a lot to lose in that I would lose Wai-Liang if the case went against him and he had to return to Singapore. It's stressful, and it was very hard to cope. We took long walks around London's South Bank, just communing with the Thames and drawing strength from the surroundings and each other. I never lost hope, but Wai-Liang (justifiably) got a bit upset about government bureaucracy and red tape. The strain was very heavy, and thank God we both coped with it as best we could. I was the optimist, trying to see the bright side and trying to cheer Wai-Liang up. It was difficult sometimes, but it paid off in the end.
The lawyer recommended that we contact our MP, Simon Hughes. Simon is the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman in the Commons, and a very good constituency MP too. So, I wrote him a letter, and then wrote an article on soc.motss and uk.gay-lesbian-bi (Usenet) just keeping my Usenet friends apprised of our situation.
A few days later I got an e-mail from a member of Simon's staff, saying that a friend of his had seen my posting and gotten in contact with the staffer, who had taken down my e-mail address and wanted to know how he could help. So, I e-mailed him the letter and asked him to write to the Home Office on our behalf. We got a copy of the letter a few days later.
This was February already. We were told to wait for two months before contacting Simon's office again, so that's what we did. In April, the staffer was off on jury service, so we didn't hear from him until the beginning of May. The answer from the Home Office was that since our application was not straightforward, it was being sent to a specialist case unit. The translation: We lost it, and then when Simon wrote about it we looked around and found it.
Our lawyer predicted that our case would be decided within the month, and that's how it turned out. We got our passports back on May 24th.
|
Click on the icon to the right to go back to the home
page.
|
|
Click on the Union Flag to go to the next installment: Indefinite Leave
to remain.
|
|
Top of page