Gavin moves to Ireland to be with his foreign wife.
A university graduate claims he had to move to Ireland to beat “destructive” immigration rules which have torn him from his foreign wife.
Gavin Holmes and his Georgian wife Lily have been inseparable since their first date as students in 2009.
They were planning a life together in the UK and married just five days after a change in immigration rules.
At the time, they hadn’t realised the change would mean Gavin would have to earn at least £18,600 a year for his wife to be allowed to live with him in Britain.
Now the hard-working recruitment consultant has moved to Ireland which has softer immigration laws to be with his 22-year-old wife.
He said many more couples would be in the same situation, which he blasted as an “absolute travesty” ahead of moves to allow hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria entry to Britain next year.
Gavin, 25, said: “I understand that the immigration system is broken but I find this blanket approach lazy and destructive to people’s lives.”
The psychology student, whose parents are from the North East of England, first went out with Lily after they met as undergraduates at Cardiff University.
They tied the knot on July 14 last year and were eager to start their life together. However, Lily is from Tiblisi in Georgia, outside the EU.
And the tough new immigration rules, currently the subject of a legal challenge, mean a spouse’s income must be at least £18,600 to allow a non-EU husband or wife stay in the UK.
Gavin said: “I only graduated this summer, so there was no way I could match the financial requirements set by the Government. We’d looked into whether she would be allowed to stay and it all seemed OK.
“It was five days before the wedding and we were too busy to catch up with the change in the immigration rules.
“Then we were told Lily couldn’t live in the UK. The rug was pulled out from under us.”
After realising she would not be granted a visa, the couple claim they have been forced to live apart.
Lily moved back to Georgia while Gavin stayed in the UK.
To add to the heartbreak, Lily was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last November and had to undergo an operation and course of radiotherapy.
Gavin took the tough decision to move to Ireland and has lived in Athy, south of Dublin, for about a month. Now he hopes Lily will be granted a visa to stay in Ireland.
They are also waiting to see if Home Secretary Theresa May will overturn a judgement by an immigration judge that the £18,600 threshold for non-EU spouses is too high.
If the decision stands, Lily may be able to move back to the UK for the couple to live together.
Gavin, born in Bury near Manchester, said: “It’s been stressful but we’re not the kind of people to give up.”
Their battle comes while hundreds of thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian migrants are expected be allowed entry into Britain, regardless of whether they have a job lined up.
Restrictions on immigration from the two eastern European countries will be lifted on January 1.
A Home Office spokesman said non-EU spouse visa applications are decided on individual merits and in line with immigration rules.
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