Scientists Josie and Joan Ferrer Obiol says their dream of returning to the UK has been turned upside down
Couples planning a new life in the UK have been left heartbroken by changes restricting who can apply to live here.
From April 2024, British citizens or people already settled in the UK will need to show they earn £38,700 before their overseas partner can live here with them - a sharp jump from the current threshold of £18,600.
They also still need to show they are in a marriage or civil partnership when they apply for a family visa, intend to be within six months, or that they have been living together for at least two years.
Ministers say the increased income threshold will help cut immigration levels, which have reached record highs in recent years, and ensure families can support themselves.
Lee, 24, from Belfast, told BBC News: `This policy means that the girl I want to marry, the girl I love...I cannot live with her and it`s destroyed me.`
He had planned to propose to his girlfriend Sarah, who lives in Malaysia, in the coming months. They met in Leeds three years ago, where he was studying engineering and she was studying law.
Lee was planning to pop the question in February next year
The couple were planning a new chapter together in the UK, but Lee said their plans for a family life are `basically destroyed by this`.
Lee earns £26,000 as a researcher in Belfast, and said his chances of earning much more than that at his age and experience level are remote.
He continued: `I just hate this, all this planning we`ve had and it`s just now all crashing down. Now basically if I want to be with someone I love, I can`t be in this country anymore.
`My mind has kind of went everywhere, to some very dark places I`ll be honest.`
British citizen Josie lives with her Italian husband in Ancona, Italy. The couple - both scientists - married in December 2020 and were planning on moving to the UK to settle.
But Josie said the prospect of earning £38,700 as a lab assistant at a British university is highly unlikely, with going-rate salaries routinely below that level.
Asked what her family`s plan was now, the 33-year-old said: `I don`t know, not come back? That would break my mum`s heart. I don`t know, I really don`t know.
`Basically it`s forcing us into a position that will make it very, very difficult - if not impossible - to come to the UK.`
Josie says the new threshold is a `crazy` amount
Cam, 28, told the BBC how he is already looking for a new home in London where his American wife can come and join him after four years of long-distance relationship.
They were planning to apply for a family visa in March, by which time Cam would have been in his new job long enough to show he has a stable income - but with the new threshold due to come into force from April, they are facing uncertainty over whether their application will make it through in time.
He told BBC News: `There`s a huge amount of anxiety. This is going to cause a lot of hurt and pain to a lot of people.`
On Tuesday, Rishi Sunak`s spokesman said the new minimum threshold could be disapplied in `exceptional circumstances where there would be unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, a relevant child or another family member`.
Personal savings and benefits can also be taken into consideration when applicants have to demonstrate how they would be able to support their family, No 10 said.
The government

argues the new £38,700 threshold - which is also being introduced as a minimum salary for many migrants seeking work visas - brings it into line with average earnings.
According to the Office of National Statistics, median gross annual earnings for full-time employees in the UK were £34,963 in April 2023.
The change to family visas is expected by the government to reduce net migration by 10,000 a year. Family visas accounted for a net migration of 39,000 in the 12 months up to June 2023.
Overall net migration for the same period was 672,000, a number the government is trying to cut by 300,000 with its wider reforms to legal immigration.
Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford-based Migration Observatory, said the change will disproportionately hit those who are already less likely to be on higher wages.
She said: `The largest impacts will fall on lower income British citizens, and particularly women and younger people who tend to earn lower wages.
`The income threshold will also affect people more if they live outside of London and the South East, in areas of the country where earnings are lower.`
One of them is Katie, a 25-year-old supermarket worker from Lincoln, who was `crying all night` when the change was announced.
Katie and Quinlan will at least be reunited over Christmas - just are unsure what the future holds
In 2020, she met Quinlan, from Indiana, US, on an online dating app. The pair got married in July 2023 and plans were under way for him to relocate to the UK.
As a supermarket worker, Katie earns £19,000 a year, including overtime pay - less than half of the new salary threshold.
She told the BBC: `Everything we were planning for ages has just gone down the drain. We finally are stable enough to start doing more hours to get the amount needed and then it practically jumps up by 50%.`
The couple`s next steps are not certain. She continued: `To stay here or go there. We shouldn`t have to choose something like this. It`s cruel.`
Ruby and Furkan are in a similar position. When they met on holiday in Turkey in the summer of 2021, she thought it was `a holiday romance - I didn`t expect anything more to come of it`.
Fast forward two-and-a-half years and the pair are newly married, but forced to live apart.
The 31-year-old from Plymouth was self-employed, but decided she would stand a better chance of demonstrating she had a steady income to support her husband`s visa application by taking a job as a veterinary receptionist, and now earns £23,000 a year.
But the changes announced this week have upended their plans completely, and they are still digesting what it means.
Ruby said: `I woke up this morning and saw the news posted on Facebook. I was devastated. I thought that surely there is no way they have hiked it up that amount.`
Starting to cry, she told the BBC: `I can`t believe I have revolved my life around this and then they change the rules after 11 years. Now I just have to hope we can be approved before April.
`If that doesn`t happen, there is no option but for me to move to Turkey. That is not the end of the world as it is a beautiful country but I would like it to be my decision, not Rishi Sunak`s.` V.5109

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One of the applicants, Phindile Mazibuko, became a victim of identity theft in 2012 when fraudulent transactions occurred, using her personal details.

-The Pretoria High Court found that the department of home affairs had violated constitutional rights without due process.
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-LHR appeals extension, urges affected people to seek help now.

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) are intensifying pressure on the department of home affairs over the national ID-blocking crisis, accusing the state of acting too slowly to unblock qualifying individuals despite a landmark court ruling.

In January last year, the Pretoria High Court found that the department`s practice of blocking IDs without due process was unlawful and unconstitutional. One of the applicants, Phindile Mazibuko, a Swati citizen and South African permanent resident since 1998, fell victim to identity theft in 2012 when fraudsters used her personal details.

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The Border Management Authority (BMA) has doubled its staff at Airports in South Africa , including immigration officers.

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A Washington state mother and her 6-year-old son have been released after spending more than three weeks in US immigration detention due to a brief trip to Canada and a small paperwork mistake, her attorney told CNN on Saturday.

Sarah Shaw, a New Zealand citizen who has lived legally in the US since she arrived in 2021, was detained at the Blaine, Washington, Customs and Border Protection checkpoint when returning home after dropping her two oldest children off at the Vancouver airport for a flight to visit their grandparents in New Zealand. Shaw, 33, chose the flight out of Vancouver because it was direct and she didn`t want her children to have to navigate a layover alone, her attorney Minda Thorward, told CNN.

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On 22 July 2025, the Gauteng High Court dismissed Sitrusrand Boerdery`s review of the Department of Employment and Labour`s refusal to issue a Working Conditions and Salary Benchmarking Certificate, an essential precondition for obtaining corporate visas under the Immigration Act.

Acting Judge Kekana AJ held that the Department`s decision was lawful, rational and procedurally fair. This judgment illustrates how businesses can - and must - structure their corporate visa applications to meet statutory requirements, and how legal practitioners should prepare robust review challenges when administrative authorities decline to recommend foreign-work permits.

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The United States could forfeit an estimated 9.4 billion dollars in visitor spending over the next three years following the introduction of a new 250 dollars `visa integrity fee,` according to industry groups, who warn the policy risks undermining tourism and costing thousands of jobs.
The United States’ decision to introduce a 250 dollars `visa integrity fee` on international visitors has triggered sharp criticism from the global tourism industry, with officials warning that the measure could deter millions of travellers and cost the U.S. economy billions.
The 250dollar `visa integrity fee,` part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed on July 4, 2025, will take effect later this year. According to immigration law firm Envoy Global, it applies to all nonimmigrant visa holders which include students, tourists, temporary workers, and business visitors particularly from African countries. V.6132
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The Border Management Authority (BMA) has doubled its staff at Airports in South Africa , including immigration officers.

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1. Right to Legal Representation•You have the right to consult with a legal representative.•Contact an immigration practitioner, legal aid clinic, or attorney urgently.•Do not sign any documents without understanding them fully. 2. Section 34 of the Immigration Act•You must be brought to court with 48 hours to confirm arrest but you can remain locked up very long as courts figure out what to do with you •If you`re found to be illegally in South Africa, you may be detained for up to 30 days (extendable by a magistrate) pending deportation.•BUT this cannot happen arbitrarily. You must be informed of your rights, and Home Affairs must follow due process.- becomes a nightmare , you could lose your job , business , place to stay V.6121
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Driving for Bolt, Uber, Mr D, or Checkers Sixty60?If you`re undocumented, you`re risking more than just your income.The Risks if You`re Not Legal: - Vehicle impoundment - Heavy fines - Arrest & deportation - Permanent bans from working in SA V.6122
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