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What if I want to move back to the UK with my French partner after Brexit?

So far most of the talk about Brexit has focused on British people moving to France, but the publication of the UK's proposed new immigration rules left some people already here wondering if they would ever be able to go back.

Published: 20 February 2020 12:32 CET
Updated: 23 October 2020 11:01 CEST

What if I want to move back to the UK with my French partner after Brexit?

Photo: AFP

The UK earlier this week published its proposed new rules for immigration from the EU after Brexit – which caused concern on both sides of the Channel.

Among the restrictions the UK wants to put in place is a minimum salary level and a requirement for a firm job offer and a high level of English.

Bringing your French partner to the UK is set to get a lot more complicated. Photo: AFP

Now these are only proposals at this stage and we don't know what rules France will impose in return, but the basic principle has always been one of reciprocity and a situation where British people coming to France get a significantly better deal than French people going to the UK could create domestic political problems for any French government.

The issue of the future rules between France and the UK is one to be discussed during the transition period, but with publication of its immigration plan, the UK seems to be stating an intention to go for the toughest level of restrictions.

And this has focused the minds of British people in France on one issue in particular – what if they want to go back?

One of the big reasons that people have for moving to France is because they have a French partner and then of course there are plenty of people who move here for other reasons, meet a handsome Frenchman or a beautiful Frenchwoman, fall in love and settle down together.

But while their lives now might be centred on France there could in the future be reasons to return to the UK.

For example if parents or other family members become sick and require long-term care.

And if the British government follows through with its immigration plans, that could become a lot more complicated for people with a French partner.

In fact some people may be left having to choose between their partner and their family back in the UK.

Kalba Meadows from British in Europe told The Local that Brits living in Europe may be forced into a tough choice in future.

“For British nationals living in the EU with non British spouses or partners, it will effectively close off the possibility in future of returning to the UK to live unless they choose to leave their partner behind.

“What if they have elderly parents in the UK who need their care … do they really have to choose between partner and parents?”

The proposals from the UK government are very much a sketch at this stage, but the basic premise is that all EU citizens who wish to live in the UK will need a visa, and they will need to satisfy certain requirements in order to get a visa.

The requirements outlined are that a French person wishing to move to the UK must

Speak English to the required level (there doesn't appear to be any guidelines published on what level of English is required)
Have a job lined up that pays £25,600 (€30,820) a year (unless they can demonstrate that their job is in a sector that has a shortage of candidates)
The job must be at the required skill level – A-levels or Bacculaureat or above
The job offer must come from an approved employer sponsor

There is no mention in the draft text of EU spouses or partners of UK citizens but under the current third country national rules simply having a British partner does not guarantee you entry to the UK – you must also fulfill the requirements for a visa.

The document simply says: “The rules for family reunion are outside of the points-based system. However they will remain integral to the transformation of the UK's new immigration system programme.”

There's also the question of when these new rules are in force by.

Anyone who makes the move before the end of the transition period – currently set for December 31st, 2020 – will be covered by the much more generous provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement, just as British people who move to France are.

But there's also an extra grace period on top of the transition period for some people.

Full details here, but the basic premise is that if you are in a relationship with a French person and that relationship began before Brexit Day (January 31st, 2020) you could have until March 2022 to take your partner to the UK with you without the need for a visa.

If the relationship begins between now and December 31st, you will have to be in the UK before December 31st in order to get the visa-free status.

The extra grace period was included after extensive lobbying from the citizens' rights group British in Europe – for more on what they do and how you can help, click here.

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'I feel exiled': How Brits in Europe are locked abroad with foreign partners

Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, many of whom have foreign partners and children. But if they want to move to the UK to live and work it will soon become more difficult.

When it comes to getting a partner visa, the UK has some of the strictest rules in Europe. In addition to hefty fees and a healthcare surcharge, the Home Office requires British citizens and long-term residents who bring their foreign partner to the UK to have a minimum income showing they can support them without relying on the social security system.

The minimum income up until now was set at £18,600 (€21,700), or £22,400 (€26,100) if the couple had one child, plus another £2,400 (€2,800) for each other child.

But these income requirements will rise steeply from April 11th 2024.

How it works: What Brits in Europe should know about UK’s new minimum income rules

From this date the minimum a British national or long-term resident will need to earn if they want to return home will increase to £29,000 (€33,800) and up to £38,000 (€44,313) by spring 2025, although there will no longer be an additional amount for accompanying children.

Alternatively, families need to prove they have at least £62,500 (€72,884) in cash, which from 11 April will increase to £88,500 (€103,207).

‘Family life has been destroyed’

To put this in context the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests that around 50 percent of UK employees earn less than the £29,000 threshold and 70 percent less than £38,700. The Observatory also says that while the number of people affected by the policy is small compared to the overall UK immigration (family visas represent 5 percent of all entry visas), the impacts on concerned families can be “very significant”.

The Migration Observatory notes that other European countries apply income thresholds to sponsor foreign partners. Spain, for instance, requires sponsors to have an annual income equal to the social security salary. In Denmark, sponsors must not have claimed social benefits in the three years before the application. But in Spain and the US, the partner’s foreign income also counts towards the threshold.

So what does this mean for mixed British and international families living in Europe who might want or even need to return to the UK to live?

Campaigners have complained that many Britons with foreign partners have simply been “locked abroad” or families have been separated while they try to meet the minimum income or savings requirement.

Reunite Families UK, a non-profit organisation supporting people affected by the UK spouse visa rules, says this policy causes distress, especially for children.

Some 65 percent of respondents in research carried out by the group said that their child received a diagnosis of a mental health condition due to the separation of their parents.

“Since its introduction, this policy has destroyed the family life of countless people and children,” Matteo Besana, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at Reunite Families UK said.

“Women have been forced to become single parents to their children and live away from their partner and the father of their children only because they didn’t meet the threshold.

“As shown by our research on the mental health impact of the policy, these are scars that, particularly for children, will be carried for the rest of their lives,” Besana said.

The people most likely to be affected are women, who tend to earn less or not work because they took on caring responsibilities. Also heavily impacted are people under 30 and over 50 years of age, people living outside London and the Southeast of England where wages are higher, and those belonging to specific ethnicities, according to the Migration Observatory.

The Local spoke to two British women, in Italy and Sweden, struggling to return to the UK with their families because of these rules.

More savings needed

Sarah Douglas, who has been living in Italy since 2007, was planning to return to Scotland with her Italian husband and three children.

“It was always our long-term goal to move back to the UK after we had our children and once we’d have saved enough to buy a home in the UK,” she said.

“In hindsight, we should have gone after the Brexit referendum, but in the beginning it wasn’t clear what the final deal would be and I naively assumed that situations like mine would be taken into account and we would have the right to return… Once it did become clear, we were in the middle of the pandemic and it wasn’t the time to move,” she said.

Having stayed home to take care of the children, Sarah will find it hard to land a job near her family in Scotland that meets the minimum income required to sponsor a foreign partner for a UK visa.

Her husband, a computer programmer, has been trying to get an employment visa, “but most of them state that you must already have permission to work in the UK,” Sarah says. And applying for British citizenship is not an option for a non-UK resident spouse.

‘People need to be aware’

Sarah and her husband are trying to save as much as they can, an alternative to the income requirement, but the amount they need is rising to almost £90,000, meaning it may be a long time before they have enough to move home.

While the aim of the UK’s policy is to ensure families moving to the UK are not a burden on the taxpayer, the reality is that people arriving on a family visa are not able to claim any benefits from the UK government.

“They should judge the overall financial viability of the family unit, rather than just the earning potential of the sponsoring partner,” Sarah says.

“We could live well with my husband’s salary and he could work remotely. We are stable and financially secure, but because I don’t earn any money, they say we are not able to support ourselves.”

Sarah says that most of the British public are unaware of the minimum income requirement.

“People think if you are married, your husband is allowed to come to the UK, but when I say no, it doesn’t work like that, they are really surprised. A lot of people are not aware of how this could affect them,” she said.

Looking for a job from abroad

Another British women who lives in Sweden with her South African husband and two children and plans to move to the UK told The Local how the minimum income requirement had put them in a “precarious and stressful situation”.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous said: “After having the two children, I was very fortunate to find a research position and do my PhD, which is a salaried position in Scandinavia, and now that I finished, we are looking to leave.

“But I need a job in the UK to sponsor my husband, and as a new graduate with limited work experience, it is not easy. It is even more difficult when you are not in the country and I missed out on opportunities because they wanted an immediate start. I really don’t want to move without my whole family,” she said.

She says the UK’s policy is “gendered and geographically discriminatory” because it makes life harder for women and also harder for anyone who is planning to move to a part of the country that isn’t in London, where salaries are higher.

“I feel exiled from my country and separated from my family there,” she said.

Her husband, she argues, has his own company and could continue working remotely from the UK, earning well above the requirement. He would also pay taxes and national insurance while having to pay the healthcare surcharge, a form of double taxation, she argues. But that would not entitle him to a visa.

“Our house is on the market now. We have booked removal companies for the 6th of June. The dog is booked for his transport. I just think this policy is so out of touch with the modern world,” she said.

Reunite Families UK has called on the government to recognise the right for British or settled citizens to bring their close family members to the UK and scrap the minimum income requirement. Alternatively, the group says the rules should take into consideration the earning potential of both partners and consider “the best interests of children”.

A petition on the UK parliament website asks the government to reconsider the minimum income policy. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it will have to be debated in parliament.

This article has been produced by Europe Street news.

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