Visa: The key to an ‘open’ city

Visa: The key to an ‘open’ city

London is an open place if you have the key. But how high is the price?

Flying from Seoul, South Korea, to London means 20 hours of flight and around £1000. To this, lets add £10,000 in overseas student fees for a master degree, £450 monthly for a flat and £100 for transport monthly. The student visa only allows you to work 25 hours weekly, on the other hand visa processing costs between £300 and £500. Is it possible to survive?

Jihee, 23, is Korean. She has been living in the UK since June, and in London since September studying Fashion Design. But on Wednesday she can´t attend her class. Instead she has to meet an immigration officer. There was a problem with her application due to the bank not stamping her bank statement.  “They can ask me to leave the country immediately. But I spent too much money to waste it because of a mistake with the application,” she said. Now she missed the deadline and has a risk of going home without finishing her course in the Istituto Marangoni, located on Brick Lane.

The Home Office assure that getting a visa depends on three elements: reason for visiting, country of nationality and current location. Eduardo, 20, disagrees. “They just want to know if you have money and if you are just staying here temporarily. Spend your savings then go away is what they seem to say,” he said. Eduardo is from Ecuador, South America. He has been working 45 hours per week during his one and a half years stay in London. His visa allows him to work just 25. “Working illegally in a relative´s factory is my only chance to survive here,” he said.

Before coming to UK, Eduardo was a medical student. Now he needs scrounge all the money he can get to eat and pay the rent which is only £250 monthly – “thanks to my aunt, who is living also here,” he said. The Home Office asks applicants to have £3,000 in their accounts for proving they can afford the costs of living. “Wake up. Nobody is going to give you the money for your visa. You have to save it all” said his aunt. Working for cash under the table is a response to a real need.

Eduardo’s motivation for coming to the UK was to study English and then medicine at university. His dream is now over. He is leaving the country in August.  “I feel disappointed and also kind of relieved… I am fed up of fighting and seeing people look at me as a cleaner but never as a doctor,” he said, “Britons say they are open-minded but I don´t know any single Latin who works in a field other than cleaning or babysitting”.

For him, there is no way to afford the undergraduate degree. He needs to study the whole day to pass the medicine exams but he needs to work full-time to pay for university. What does it mean? There are just two choices. One: don´t study and work illegally. Two: study medicine in Ecuador. What about a third option of studying here? It doesn’t exist, actually. At least, not in his case.  It is possible to obtain citizenship by marrying a Briton or by living in the UK for more than five years.

This is not without risks. “Nowadays, the marriage visa application is tightly controlled by the Home Office so it is more difficult to cheat,” said Diana Cárdenas, lawyer.  On the other hand, surviving in the UK for more than 5 years under the radar can be very tough. “There is an exception in the law that some people use. It means they can´t leave the country during the whole 5 year period, otherwise they will not be granted re-entry” said Cárdenas.

Adriana, a 24 year old Colombian, knows the difficulties some immigrants face only too well. She came to London six years ago and fell pregnant. Unfortunately, the father was a foreigner as well. “I couldn´t go home, I had no money and my family would have killed me. I came here to study English for six months and I have been here for six years. Even my mum doesn´t know her grandaugther yet,” she said.

“London is an open place” – states the tourism advert. But only if you have the key.

Photo from Flickr by gribblemonkey