Address Line 1 Address Line 2 London Post Code 1st July 2013 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister David Cameron, The public are shocked and alarmed at the treatment of British children being made fatherless or motherless and British MARRIED citizens being torn apart from their husbands and wives often indefinitely by the new 2012 Spouse Visa rules. On 19th June 2013 I handed a petition against the new rules directly in person to Immigration Minister Mark Harper MP to pass on directly to Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP, on behalf of over 11,500 British citizen signatories gathered over a few weeks. Together with the 11,500 signature petition, were personal stories and letters addressed directly to Theresa May from 35 clearly self-sufficient British citizens' families who have been torn apart by the new rules and a report of case studies, research, findings and recommendations composed by these 35 families. We have not yet received a response. Please can you read our report enclosed, we think you will agree, the report is compelling evidence the new spouse visa rules are not fit for purpose and are in-fact causing the exact opposite to the current governments stated intention to protect the public purse and promote integration. The income threshold introduced in the new 2012 spouse visa rules is 18,600 a year, 22,400 with a child and 2,400 for every additional child or alternatively British citizens must have an incredible 62,500 of savings, held in an instant access bank account for 6 months. As a result 47% of EMPLOYED married British citizens and 61% of EMPLOYED British women who have worked hard and paid into the British system all their lives, as have countless generations before them, are no longer entitled to family life in the UK if they have married a non-EEA citizen. The British public are shocked and disturbed that self-sufficient, hard working British Citizens are either being forced apart from their husbands leaving their British children fatherless or from their wife and British children. The alternative choice is to be forced to sell their familys home or to be forced to leave their own country and live in exile, far away from elderly, sick or disabled British parents and family, their homes and work commitments. This is especially immoral when most of these British citizens are NHS workers, nurses, teachers and armed forces who are simply not paid enough by the government to be entitled to have a family with their husband or wife in their own country.

Stories in our report include :

Shocking discrimination against British women due to their role in society as carers of children and British
elderly, sick or disabled family. Many MARRIED British women are being forced to give birth and look after newborns alone, many will remain forced "single mothers" indefinitely as they cannot leave the UK for

various reasons. British children with MARRIED loving parents are growing up fatherless, it's a deep tragedy as ALL families in the report were self-sufficient and would have remained self-sufficient had their husbands been granted a spouse visa.

In many cases the British wife was forced to leave the UK to reunite her husband with their British children,
so had no choice but to give up their employment and care of their elderly, sick or disabled British family, the taxpayer often having to pay for their valuable unpaid care work.

In a couple of the cases British married women with ordinarily self-sufficient families when together were
made single parents and forced onto benefits for the first time in their lives as a direct result of the new rules.

In another case a British mother with husband, with 6 degrees between them and their British child are
permanently exiled.

In another a British Cambridge University fully funded PhD student was forced to decide between his PhD
research or his wife, he chose his wife.

In another, a British man is forced to close his Goldsmith business and shop of 25 years and leave his 2
young heart broken sons by a previous marriage.

In another, a British married women, a highly successful specialist in her field, who had worked hard and
paid off her mortgage, earning 40K per annum freelance, which would not be counted under the new rules, was given the "choice" between her sick mother, her husband or dearly wanted unborn child. At age 40 she has been told she may never conceive again, she is devastated. On the abortion documents under "reason" it states "the 2012 spouse visa rules".

In the majority of cases studies, full time, valuable, hard working NHS workers, carers, nurses, teachers
and armed forces who are all self-sufficient are denied the right to family life in their home country because the government does not pay them enough.

In another case a British retired man, who had worked hard all his life and paid off his mortgage was
denied a spouse visa for his wife of many years, as he was retired. He died heart-broken, his distraught wife was not even allowed to attend his funeral. The report has many recommendations directly from the families affected to make the new rules fit for purpose, to protect the rights of British citizens, especially children AND also protect the British taxpayer. The insights within the report could prove valuable to our country.

These British citizens families feel the government are using them as political "sacrificial lambs"; In the year before the new rules came out only 32,200 British citizens' spouse visas were granted, a tiny proportion of the 566,000 immigration figures of 2011. 77,000 British citizens also left in overall net migration figures in 2011. These comparatively tiny figures of spouse visas, representing the very few British citizens who wish to stay or come home, have always been and still are stamped "no recourse for state funds" - British citizens' spouses have never been allowed access to benefits on spouse visas, yet Immigration Minister, Mark Harper in the House of Commons debate on the 19th June still continues to mislead the British public and parliament that these rules are to dramatically reduce immigration and protect the public purse, when these spouses have never been a problem either in terms of numbers and cannot be a burden on the state. The British public are concerned about free EU immigration with their non-EEA spouses who are both entitled to our benefit system on entry to the UK, 174,000 EU citizens with 20,000 non-EEA spouses, with an additional 77,000 from A8 countries, 271,000 in total in 2011. As you are aware, these numbers are

uncontrollable as we are under treaty, yet you still personally promised the British public to reduce net immigration from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands and then left this impossible task to Rt. Hon Theresa May MP, who now has no choice but to force British citizens to leave to manipulate the net immigration figures in order to satisfy your impossible promise. British married citizens are therefore paying the political price, the government are misleading the general public that these new rules are to tackle their concerns yet this attack on these comparatively very few British citizens spouses who have never been allowed access to state funds is a shocking abuse on British families for political gain. Self-sufficient British citizens are now being forced to live as single parents, in heartbreaking suffering, stripped of their social, financial and emotional standing. Their British children often left motherless or fatherless or the British citizen is forced to leave their British family, home, study or business and career. As our report clearly shows, this is not only against the rights of these British citizens families and but against the interests of the taxpayer. Please, we ask you to take time to read our comprehensive report on self-sufficient British citizens whose families and lives have been torn apart by the 2012 Spouse Visa rules and we ask you to overturn these unfair rules that have caused significant suffering and abuse to thousands of self-sufficient British families. The 35 families in this report and the 11,500 British citizens who signed our petition would like to know why we have not had a response from Theresa May or Mark Harper and would like an explanation of why policy has not changed as a result of the APPG on Migrations report published on 10 June this year and from our report we have submitted? Our report clearly illustrates, the new rules contradict your personal repeated claims of fairness and ideals of supporting people that work hard and want to get on being key Conservative Party values. We hope you can change the rules to be supportive of this ideology. All hardworking, self-sufficient British citizens, as in all the 35 personal stories submitted in our report must be entitled to a family life from birth. It is our country; surely we must take priority over couples entering our country where both are immigrants? Especially when these hundreds of thousands of immigrants a year do not have to fulfill ANY of the strict financial and language criteria that British citizens non-EEA spouses must, who are so few in numbers. This is clearly against the British value of fairness and common sense. Thank you very much for your time and we earnestly await your reply. Yours Sincerely,

Marianne Bailey Inventor Designer Social and Environmental Entrepreneur University Lecturer Mother On behalf of 35 families torn apart by the 2012 spouse visa rules and 11,500 shocked and concerned British citizens