Stressed

In a frantic attempt to be seen to be doing something to halt the immigration crisis caused by Blair's government, the Home Office is to announce that tourist visas will in future allow only 3 months in the UK instead of 6. This measure will of course have no effect on illegal immigration since illegal immigrants don't care very much how long the visa is valid if they intend to violate it anyway.

The Home Office is also intending to charge families of visitors who overstay their visas £1,000. In other words, if my sister in law, who is Taiwanese, comes to visit, we get fined £1,000 if she overstays her visa. This measure seems yet more ludicrous. I assume people will be able to enter the country on a tourist visa if they don't have family in the country. In which case, my sister in law can still come in on a tourist visa without declaring that she has family in the country, and then overstay her visa, same as before. And there is no way the British government can check whether my sister in law is related to anyone in this country. And even if they could, they would surely have to prove that we had knowledge of her visit.

Seems to me that all this only affects those people currently not intending to violate the law. Like me for instance. The £1,000 bond and the fact that I have shelled out nearly £1,000 in expenses this month just to keep my family together, makes me feel as though I am effectively taxed on my marriage to a foreigner. And what really gets up my nose is the fact that the Home office is only doing this to make it look as though they are in fact doing something about the immigration crisis they caused.

I think I'm going to stop writing about immigration issues because it's stressing the hell out of me.