Thank you wowsers for your reply. You pointed out two issues I hadn't realized regarding my husband's pension etc. And I need to factor this information into the mix. Again, thank you.
My husband is a stubborn and single-minded man and he is determined to come to Canada. I asked him to wait a bit to do his medical and suggested that I have a little time to look at my financial situation. I have had my own retail shops over the years and could quite easily and cheaply open a second-hand store in the town we are going to settle. It had one which closed for personal reasons and neighbours are eager for another to open. I have had three such shops in the past, all successful, not huge money-makers but more than sufficient. But it needs to be in existence and showing some success before it can be counted as viable income. My husband isn't ready to wait for anything so I am obliged to submit our application packet now. As it stands now, I have just barely sufficient income to get us by without factoring in his pension. So I will do what I can to pump up my income.
I have read on a number of threads of the advantages of UK over Canada with regard to immigration. Sadly, that has not been my experience. I had to fight a deportation order and an interminably long wait for a court date and another for the decision. It did come down in our favour but I paid for the stress with the need for stomach surgery. For my trouble I received Limited Leave for three years. I truly believe UKBA waited in hopes, considering my husband's age, for something to happen to break down the sponsorship. And it did, in the form of a stroke which caused the loss of income. So when it comes to applying for Indefinite Leave, I will be denied because a sponsor there must prove the ability to support his spouse without recourse to public funds. This is impossible for my husband to do. This is the most important issue in a sponsorship application in the UK. Our application will be denied and I would be forced to leave yet again and have to re-settle here again. So the advantages of an ever-increasing old age pension and no exchange rate problem are really no advantage after all because there is definitely a constraint on our rights to state financial help.
The fact has already been proven. For five months, I fought the State Pension people to get my husband Pension Credit (top-up). They had me amend the application three times and had me send my passport three times. The pension credit which is to come within 15 days never came at all....the reason, my immigration status (Limited Leave to Remain with no recourse to public funds). As long as I was with my husband, he, a life-long British citizen, would receive nothing. I spent the same amount of time trying to get him Housing Benefits and Council Tax Benefits. I got a run-around with no benefits put into place and no explanation until we had Age UK look into it for us. They were told that I was the problem. If I were an illegal alien, there would be no problem...he would get his benefits. We were then sent a letter demanding to see a copy of my plane ticket back to Canada and a promise that I would never return, and as a cruel aside, a copy of divorce papers if that was my husband's next step. If these conditions were met, he would receive Benefits. I had no recourse but to arrange for carers to come in four times a day...paid for by the same Council that wouldn't allow me, his wife, to do the same for free...and to leave. Within one week his Benefits were in place. I cannot return to the UK. Each time I came to Canada to visit my children over the past three years, upon return to the UK, my passport was scanned, the agent looked at me disdainfully and said "You were once denied admittance to the UK", then I was put into a holding area with a couple of big, full-body tattooed, surly drug dealers/terrorists (my assumption, I know!) for 15 minutes, then allowed to go home to my husband. Can you picture the little old lady geriatric terrorist from a third world country in that setting!!??
As it stands at the moment except for my husband and the beautiful landscape of Devon where we vacationed, there is nothing that would entice me to set foot on English soil ever again (my apologies to any Brits who may be reading this..it isn't personal, just based on the pain & anguish and frustration that has been my lot in dealing with the 'powers that be' in the UK).
I will do everything in my power to get my husband here. I am determined to live a quiet, peaceful life here in Canada because it was denied me in the UK. The UK is not an option. If by some miracle, I were allowed to go back to fight once again to stay there, I couldn't do it. The fight is gone. My health wouldn't stand up to six months of fight with UKBA and I would be of no use in the care of my husband because I would collapse.
I didn't find your comments pessimistic at all, wowsers. Much more realistic than pessimistic and I appreciate any input from anyone on this Forum.
What I must do, is have faith in CIC. I must believe that they have my best interests at heart, that they are not an adversary. That's all I can do, just lay my cards on the table and hope and pray that they respond in our favour. If I'm wrong, and I may very well be, then we will have to be grateful for Skype, our only link.
