A British father separated from his partner, son and stepson by UK visa rules says he feels as if he is “being punished for being working class and in love”.
Leighton Allen met his partner, Sophie Nyenza, who is from Tanzania, while travelling in the country in 2022. The pair had a son, Myles, and planned to settle in the UK.
But last year the then Conservative government changed the amount that British citizens must earn to be able to apply for a visa for a partner. Allen is now living in the UK but is unable to bring his family to join him.
The situation means his son doesn’t recognise him, Allen has said, while Nyenza, 32, who previously worked as a baker in Dar es Salaam, has to bring up the two-year-old and his 11-year-old brother, Alex, her son from a previous relationship, alone.
Until April 2024, British citizens could sponsor an unmarried partner’s visa if they could demonstrate earnings equivalent to more than £18,600 a year for at least six months, under minimum income requirement (MIR) rules.
Allen, from Worcestershire, was close to reaching the MIR when the threshold was raised to earnings of £29,000 or at least £88,500 in cash savings, figures out of reach for the 30-year-old, who makes £21,600 a year as a petrol station attendant.
He said: “If my mum and dad had that money in the bank and gave it to me, my partner and my family would be here – that’s what hurts the most. These are a set of rules that really discriminate against working-class people who fall in love abroad. Why are we punished for it?”
Allen is being supported by the campaign group Reunite Families UK, who this week at a parliamentary event launched a report on the impacts of partner migration rules, accompanied by an exhibition.
The report argues that the rules discriminate against lower earners, leaving “working-class families to suffer the pains of separation … and the lifelong implications that we know this instability causes”, while children face “life-changing trauma”.
Allen said: “I was [in Tanzania] relatively recently and felt like a complete stranger to my son Myles. It’s ‘phone Dad’, the 2D image of me he knows, not the actual person.”
Earlier this month, a review by the migration advisory committee (Mac) suggested ministers could cut the amount that a British citizen must earn to apply for a partner’s visa and suggested scrapping the previous government’s plans to raise the MIR to £38,700, saying the increase would conflict with the right to family life under article 8 of the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
Allen said: “If it goes up to £39k I would never earn that. And even if [the MIR] gets brought back down, for somebody like me, the fees – for the application, for the NHS, for the English test – are still high.”
Allen cannot move to Tanzania because migration law there does not treat adult males as visa “dependents” in most circumstances.
“I’m stuck in quite a hard place because I’m sending most of my pay to Tanzania, whereas if Sophie came over she could work as a carer,” he said. “Right now we’re both just surviving, but together we could thrive. Sophie would pay her tax, she wouldn’t be a drain on the NHS because she would have to pay the surcharge.”
The Home Office said it was considering the Mac review’s findings, and added: “The government has already committed to legislate to clarify the application of article 8 of the ECHR.”
Caroline Coombs, a cofounder of Reunite Families UK, said: “The reality is clear: the minimum income requirement disproportionately impacts working-class and racially minoritised families. The rules must be rebalanced to prevent these unfair and damaging consequences.”