Italian police officer forced to quit UK police force due to post-Brexit hurdles | Immigration and asylum

A police officer working in Manchester claims he was forced to quit his job after Rishi Sunak raised the salary threshold to sponsor his Italian wife to live in the UK under the post-Brexit immigration scheme.

Campaigners have warned that his narrative of Brexit anxiety is being repeated across the country, in the poorly paid public sectors where many EU citizens work.

Italian Dani, who asked that his full name not be used, has been in the country since 2017 and has permanent resident status under the post-Brexit residency scheme for EU citizens.

He began a two-year probationary period to become a detective a year ago, but he earns just £26,000 – £4,000 short of the £29,000 needed to act as a sponsor to bring a foreign family member into the country.

“It’s very stressful because it took me years to find this job. I was very successful in one field, I liked it and I didn’t want to leave that job. So now I have to start all over again. And I don’t know what I’ll do when I go back to Italy with my wife, or will we have to go somewhere else?”

He completed a PhD in clinical sport at Glasgow and joined the police on a two-year postgraduate programme, which Metropolitan Police figures show can cost more than £100,000 in total, including salaries for coaches and trainees.

Dani met his wife in 2022, but like many EU citizens in the country, he continued his life in Britain, focusing on the year-long process of vetting and exams to gain entry to Greater Manchester Police’s detective programme, which he did in May 2023.

When he joined the force, the salary threshold for bringing in a family member was £18,600, but the family sponsorship threshold was raised to £29,000 in the spring as part of Rishi Sunak’s gradual doubling of the sponsorship salary threshold to £38,700.

Those reaching £29,000 must also pay an application fee of £1,846 and pay the healthcare surcharge of £3,105 for a two-year and nine-month visa, then reapply before that visa expires.

He says his wife, who also has a seven-year-old child from a previous relationship, “could easily find a job” in the UK as she is a hospitality manager, but lawyers have told him he has little chance of success and the £10,000 to £12,000 it would cost to apply could be wasted.

“My wife could have stayed for a while, but she couldn’t work, and it would have been difficult for me to support my family of three if I had left the UK. It meant I had to give up my job, and I didn’t want to do that, but in the end it was the only option we had. You know, we want to create a stable family unit and we can’t do that in a long-distance relationship,” he said.

Desperate for intervention from anyone to help him, or for political change, he added: “My only hope, I think, is that the immigration laws change.”

Andreea Dumitrache, head of communications at campaign group 3million, said: “We all want to be able to care for our families, but many are denied the right to family life simply because we dare to fall in love with someone born abroad.

“EU citizens were promised that their rights would not change after Brexit. That promise has not been kept. The minimum income requirement is tearing our families apart. The reality is that most people don’t earn £38,700, so love is now a privilege for the few.”

Greater Manchester Police said it was for the Home Office to comment.

The Home Office, which usually declines to comment on individual cases in response to questions about Brexit-related residency issues, choosing instead to reiterate the UK’s support for EU citizens, said the future of sponsorship thresholds depended on the new government.

“The new Interior Minister will decide in due course on the future of the current policies of the Interior Ministry,” he said.

She added that each application for family reunification was examined on its merits.