I'd like to give an account of a legitimate immigration case through marriage which I imagine is pretty much a standard. I'm a british citizen who married my Ecuadorian wife in Ecuador in Oct 1998, we did not seek to return to the UK but moved to Japan. I went to Japan first, secured a job and then a visa for my wife. After finding the job and submitting the application for residency visas for my wife and myself visas were issued within two months. This from a country with far higher living standards than the UK and equally as targeted by workers from less economically stable countries. We lived and worked there for two years and then moved to Vietnam to work. We did not apply for entry to the UK until May 2001, we had been married, living together and travelling together for almost 3 years. Although technically feasible to apply for a spousal visa from Vietnam, a system is developed to instill fear of rejection (for rejection is almost always final) and a huge burden of documentation is required. We were steered into the route of accepting a tourist visa by the embassy that while never denying a spousal visa outright, made it practically impossible to risk applying to them for a spousal visa. We had been married for almost three years at this point, hardly a convenience marriage and we both still had healthy bank accounts.... a fact that was about to change. The tourist visa allowed her to enter the UK, my wife was not allowed to apply for her spousal visa in the UK as she had only entered on a tourist visa, (even though it was obvious we truely married). Due to the Vietnamese British embassies unwillingness to assist in applying for a spousal visa there my wife now had to return to Ecuador, this is not quite the other side of the planet of Vietnam but almost. Flights from the UK to Ecuador cost well over 600UK stirling especially when you are unable to fly back within 3 months, (as this is the minimum amount of time expected to process a visa application cheaper flights could not be booked). This however is just the beginning, it may seem counter intuitive but for me to 'sponsor' my wifes immigration into the UK besides having to show love letters, personal photos etc etc from our life together I also have to show evidence of my life in the UK. Varying documents showing my established home etc etc. This of course being difficult as like I imagine many people who are married to foreigners I hadn't lived in the UK for a substantial period of time. Thus one needs to rush about creating a life as soon as possible, the three month application time starting after you have managed to come up with the documentation necessary – so every week now is added on. Getting an address is the hardest, to invite my wife here I need a house or a landlord willing to sign a letter agreeing to this new immigrant living in the house and testifying to the size of the house and the amount of people living in it. Most cheap / reasonable housing in Edinburgh (where I was trying to live at the time) does not come attached to a landlord that wants to share details of his business with governmental agencies. Not to mention that this forces one to live for several months in housing big enough for two when you have the income of one. The only landlords willing to do this because they are totally above board are very expensive. In my case it was the University which only provided the accomodation because I begged and was a student. This accomodation and letter which I was immensly grateful for cost 500+ UK pound stirling per month, 300 more than I actually could have been paying to my previous landlord. I also had to sign a contract so in all I spent 6 month there, at an extra cost of 1500 pounds stirling.... just to get the letter. Of course my wife must live off her savings during these periods as well instead of getting a real life / work set up as she is forced into waiting, often in long queues for a multitude of documents in Ecuador, police records etc which all of course cost money. I too spend a great deal of time trying to complete the necessary, have you ever tried to get the social services to send you a document saying you have never claimed anything (even when you never have).... don't. The quarter inch thick set of documents that I had to fax to the Ecuadorian British embassy cost over 30 quid a time, (they asked me to resend as the quality of their machine was not so good). Fortunately the application fee is only 200 quid a very small portion of the overall costs, (and we didn't even get a soliciter). I did however pay council tax unnecessarily (I was a student) just to get further proofs of address , as multiple proofs were necessary. Possibly... they were necessary because nothing is as it says it is in the immigration process – you never can have 'enough' proof. The process is made as intimidating as possible, even to those who are completly legitimate. It places huge burdens of stress on the participants and it requires the exposure of intimacy. Through fear of rejection they make you do a million things that may not be necessary but you cannot take the risk of not doing them. After costing us directly almost three thousand pounds (indirectly much more taking into account the lack of my wifes working, accrued interest on debts etc) we were asked if we had sufficient funds.... which of course we had had before we encountered the immigration process. She was accepted and given a years visa. After five months we were reunited, our marriage was damaged by the seperation but we repaired it. After a year we went though a less traumatic but similar excercise but without seperation. Our son was born in March 2003. I found work in Germany beginning Oct 2003 – having a son to look after I took it. To arrange my wifes visa to Germany took less than three months, to get her residency took again less than three months. Both cost nothing. After three years in the UK someone married to a British national is entitled to citizenship. We calculated she had arrived in July 2001 and she therefore after staying sometime with me here returned to the UK to spend another four months there to complete her three years. Citizenship is important for a family it guarantees you cant be seperated by governments, something you can assume is the case when you are married to someone from your own country. It means I don't pay higher taxes just because she isn't European, nationality also means she can travel, becuase as merely a 'resident' here my wife cannot visit other European countries without invite from nationals from that country and without my accompanying her and a good deal of paperwork. If she moves here with my son to be with me she loses her rights to nationality, she loses her right to a reasonably priced education. It makes finding 'good' jobs immensly more difficult. My views on immigration are not that liberal, but I don't understand the press. We've been married for five and a half years, we have a son born in the UK we still wish to live in the UK (although I have a current job within Europe) but she is not allowed to visit me thus I am seperated from my 1 year old son as well as my wife, I am expected to maintain two households again on one income or forfeit the right to have all my family under one law. According to the press it would be far easier if she had just applied for asylum.... accept of course it's bollox. I'm sure it is much much harder for them than it is for us, the Daily Mail etal are lying scum. The lord Home Office have determined my wifes three years start from when she entered the country the second time using her spousal visa -not when she came the first time before being forced to leave shortly after. Thus I should remain seperated from my wife and son another five months for her to be able to claim her rights. This is neither emotionally nor financially possible. I seek to take the government to court based on the European Constitution anyone with any insight into immigration matters who knows good law websites please let me know.