'Insurmountable obstacles' -husband from a war zone?

[negomilamb]

'To apply for entry to the UK, or to stay here or be granted settlement you will need to meet the suitability, relationship, financial and English language requirements. If you do not meet the requirements your application will be refused unless:

or
o there are insurmountable obstacles to family life with your partner continuing outside the UK.

Insurmountable obstacles means that we would look at the seriousness of any difficulties that would prevent you and your partner from living in another country, and whether those difficulties could be overcome.'



Hello!

I am a British student, about to graduate, and struggling to find work next year that starts at 18,000. My Husband is from the Gaza Strip and we were living together for a year and a half in Egypt, working in NGOs until he had to return to Gaza.

The Gaza Strip, Palestine, is somewhere the foreign office absolutely advise everyone not to go to, and, I found it very hard to be there even for a month. Apart from the bombs, my husband has been arrested eleven times, and beaten up by the (Islamist) government there, for peaceful activism. (this has all been recorded by international human rights groups in gaza). I can speak some Arabic, and would love to live in the middle east, but because my husband is from Gaza, it's impossible for him to get a visa anywhere. Also, because of various complications, i can't legally go to Gaza, and have to go through the tunnels instead. Additionally, I feel I am lacking freedom of religion there.

My husband has a degree, and has had lots of writing published - (but I think he needs to improve his written English).

I live in a 2 bed flat owned by my parents, rent free, and it has lots of space.

Bearing this in ming, could this count as insurmountable obstacles? and has anyone had any experience with this? This is keeping me up at this time of night....our only other option will be Europe, but we would need proper residency to work.


Thankyou very much

[mannypk]

Your situation is pretty complicated and the best option would be for you to get professional legal advise. I think you should qualify for Legal Aid so that is a positive. Try searching for a local Legal Aid law firm in your local area.

In the mean time, maybe start collecting documentary evidence to support your case. This would include reasons as to why you cannot enter Gaza, the documentary evidence from human rights groups, any news reports which point toward the curtailment of freedom religion, any other related news reports etc.

The Foreign Office wants applicants to be able to back their claims with evidence so collect as much as you can. I hope this helps.

[negomilamb]

Your situation is pretty complicated and the best option would be for you to get professional legal advise. I think you should qualify for Legal Aid so that is a positive. Try searching for a local Legal Aid law firm in your local area.

In the mean time, maybe start collecting documentary evidence to support your case. This would include reasons as to why you cannot enter Gaza, the documentary evidence from human rights groups, any news reports which point toward the curtailment of freedom religion, any other related news reports etc.

The Foreign Office wants applicants to be able to back their claims with evidence so collect as much as you can. I hope this helps.

Thankyou very much, I will def look into legal aid!

A small thing about documents - we have a few papers from the ICRC in English about him, but we have a lot of news reports and articles in Arabic - does anyone know, would I have to get them translated by a UKBA certified translator?

(if this was Norway, I think he'd have a good asylum case, but I've done a bit of work in detention centres, and the policies here seem to be horrific.)

[mannypk]

You're welcome.

As far as I'm aware, any evidence, which is not in English, submitted with your application needs to be accompanied with a certified translation.

The fact that some of the reports mention your husband by name is a major positive. Another thing which would help would be to include any Gaza government policy or in-action (i.e. threats from a particular group which the government is unwilling take on action on) which is directly affecting both of you.

Remember, if you are taking the spouse route the case will be decided on how the situation affects both you and your husband. An asylum case would be slightly different as only your husband would have to show a threat, which would be harder.

Also my own observation would be (again this is a personal view so please don't take this as a definite on UKBA policy) that you shouldn't mention the fact that you have used tunnels to access Gaza.

Also get your local MP involved.