Border agency backlog keeps Britons and their foreign spouses in limbo

Long delays mean visa seekers' personal and professional lives are put on hold, with 6,000 applications pending at last count.

Helen Murphy, a British lawyer, married her Chinese husband, Kurt Qian, a translator, in August last year and applied the next day for a marriage visa to allow him rights to stay in the country. Six months later, the couple are still waiting. Murphy has been offered an important six-month career placement overseas but unless the marriage visa comes through she will either have to forgo the opportunity or endure an extended separation from the man she loves.

The long documented delays at the UK Border Agency are wreaking havoc with their personal and professional lives. "It has been and continues to be a totally soul-destroying experience. It's horrible. I had no idea it would be this bad," Murphy said.

Qian said: "Most of the time I've been home alone and sometimes I feel like I'm going mad. Helen is the only person I have to talk to. It's Chinese new year next week and as an only son I would love to go back to China to celebrate with my parents. But I can't because I'm stranded here. I'm not trying to take advantage of the system. All I want is the opportunity to work as a translator and pay my taxes. We are just two human beings trying to live a normal life."

When one of a couple is a British citizen and the other is from a country outside the European Union a spousal visa is required to allow the foreign partner the right to work, travel, study, volunteer and access healthcare in the UK.

Last month, John Vine, chief inspector of borders and immigration, published a report criticising the backlog in processing marriage visas. Much of his attention was focused on delays of almost a decade in dealing with appeals in the most complex cases.

However, the delays also extend to initial applications in straightforward cases. There were 10,805 postal applications for spousal visas between January and June last year. By November 6,236 of them were still pending.

Couples who meet the criteria of being financially self-sufficient and having suitable accommodation to live in, assumed the issuing of this visa would be a speedy formality. They were wrong: many have been left in limbo for 10 months or more while their applications languish in a file somewhere in the UK Border Agency. Many of the couples are high flying professionals, unused to being prevented from working.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/fe...ge?INTCMP=SRCH