My marriage will survive visa row (From Halesowen News)

My marriage will survive visa row

3:56pm Tuesday 9th June 2009

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THE wife of a Turkish waiter who has been denied a visa to visit her in the UK has vowed they will continue to stay married despite living thousands of miles apart.

Kathleen Ekiz married Hakan Ekiz in December 2006 after a courtship of two years.

However, the Home Office has refused him entry into the UK despite several visa applications because he overstayed a previous visa.

It means the couple are still being forced to live apart.

As previously reported in your Worcester News, Mrs Ekiz, who is the sole carer of her autistic daughter Amy Morris, aged 22, is being forced to visit him in Turkey to keep the romance alive, but says the cost of re-applying for visas is crippling them.

“It costs about £550 for a visa and we can’t just keep reapplying for it,” said the 61-year-old, of Sedge Close, St John’s, Worcester.

“It costs money. All I can do is keep going to see him every two to three months. I really don’t know what else I can do. I have been told to prove that we will live together if he comes to England, but how can I when we aren’t given the chance.

“This country sees me as married to him as they have taken a quarter of my pension away as I am married, but then I can’t be supported by my husband as they won’t let him in.”

Mr Ekiz, 40, is trying to save the money so he can re-apply for a visa after the summer season, but is also struggling to find long-term work in Turkey.

He was previously married to another English woman, and when the marriage ended in divorce, his visa ran out.

However, he did not return to Turkey on time and chose to continue working in the UK.

Worcester MP Mike Foster said he understands the difficult situation Mrs Ekiz finds herself in, but said: “I can’t envisage a way that the decision made on the visa will change in the very near future and it would be wrong for me to give her false hope. “The difficulties are because of her husband’s previous behaviour reg-arding a visa.”

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