Married, but cruel rules keep us apart
PRINCE Harry has fallen in love with a beautiful woman from a country far away from his home — and the same thing has happened to me. I am a British citizen who fell in love with an Indian girl while she was studying at the London School of Economics. Our relationship had everything — anxious waits for weekend meetings and blissful walks across Hyde Park. Chavi and I married on St Valentine’s Day last year and looked forward to spending the rest of our lives together. However, after applying for a spouse’s visa and waiting eight months, we were refused in October by the Home Office, leaving us stranded on different continents. We are approaching our first anniversary, but are yet to start our married life. All we have are Skype calls and cramming a year’s worth of experiences into a week’s holiday. I have supplied every necessary document to the Home Office and earn many times the minimum financial requirement to have my wife join me. But due to an oversight by a case worker, everything has come to a standstill. I am sure no such problems will be faced by our lovely soon-to-bewed royal couple. No offence to theirs or anyone’s happiness, but it seems it is just us commoners whose rights and freedom are at the mercy of ill-judged evaluations by government officials. Years of working hard, buying a house and paying taxes now seem futile. I feel like a second-class citizen who pays first-class taxes. We have already missed almost a year of sharing the happy events of married life — our birthdays, festivals, the leaves turning in the autumn and romantic dinners. I hope that our appeal can be heard soon and that some time in the near future my empty house will become our home.
HITESH MAGGU, Telford, Shropshire.