A naturalist from Sri Lanka who has contributed to BBC and Discovery Channel documentaries cannot get a visa to visit the UK, his wife has told The i Paper. Zara, 36, from Dorset, said she met her husband, Gayan Gamage, 39, when she took part in a whale tour he was giving in the South Asian country. “We bonded over our joint love of nature and wildlife,” she said. “We were initially friends. I came back a few months later again and that’s when we started our relationship.” Zara, an Operating Department Practitioner in the NHS, said her husband applied for three tourist visas to come to the UK, but they were rejected by the Home Office over concerns he would not return to Sri Lanka.

'He can't come and visit here'

On one occasion, she said the Home Office rejected Gayan’s visa without citing any supporting reasons. The pair were married in January last year, allowing them to apply for a spouse visa if Zara met the £29,000 minimum income threshold to sponsor it. But she told The i Paper that she has taken up a part-time bank contract, partly to have time to visit her husband, but also due to underlying health conditions. This has meant she does not meet the income requirement to sponsor her husband’s visa. The previous Conservative government raised the income threshold from £18,600 to £29,000 in April 2024. It aimed to increase it further to £38,700 in 2025, but the plans were put on hold following Labour’s general election victory last July. “Because of all the visa rejections, he can’t come and visit here,” Zara said. “I’m the one who has to travel out there to see him. I try and go every 10-12 weeks.” She added that the distance has meant the pair “can’t start a family until we’re together in one country”.(Photo: Yui Mok/PA)

'Disheartened and despondent'

She says: “We just wanted to start married life together in the same country and have the same chance as others to be able to make informed decisions about where our future might be together. With my age, and my health conditions, I may have potential fertility problems. But I don’t want to try until we’re in the same country. It leaves us very disheartened and despondent, because we had all these plans for our lives and it’s not happening. Our lives are both on hold.” Zara said her mental health has been severely impacted by the separation from her husband, particularly during times of hardship she has to endure alone. “My mental health has taken a massive decline over the past year and a half,” she said.

'We want to be there for each other'

Zara says: “The stress of this visa stuff has contributed greatly to that. I’ve had the death of my grandfather, who was the closest thing to a father I had. I’ve been hospitalised multiple times, my grandfather died in hospital suddenly, my grandmother has been hospitalised. My husband was hospitalised in Sri Lanka. He had an injury – a small wound which turned septic. He was in a very bad way in hospital. Having to go through such horrible life events without having your husband here is inhumane, it’s torture and it’s been extremely hard. It’s made things hard because we want to be there for each other during these hard times and we can’t.”

'He can support himself financially'

Zara said her husband has assisted film crews access wildlife in Sri Lanka for major shows and publications, including the BBC’s Planet Earth series, National Geographic and Discovery Channel, among others. Gayan can support himself financially, Zara stressed, pointing to his contribution to British television, as well his wildlife touring and camping business, the Yala Naturalist, in Sri Lanka. Beyond the Immigration Health Charge – a fee most non-UK residents have to pay when applying for a visa – Zara said her husband “will be paying taxes when he starts work and is not entitled to any benefits so I do not see how we will be a burden”. She added that, as an Operating Department Practitioner providing care to patients undergoing surgery, her specialist qualifications are not recognised in Sri Lanka. “My job is very specialist and they don’t recognise it out there,” she said.

'Another indictment of a cruel system'

Caroline Coombs, co-founder and executive director of Reunite Families UK, told The i Paper: “Zara’s experience of the rules is yet another indictment of a cruel system that negatively affects UK citizens and settled residents, particularly those on low/middle income. We continue to urge this Labour Government to dismantle this classist and racist family immigration system. No government should dictate which British citizens and settled residents are worth or family life.” (Photo: Ben Fathers/AFP via Getty)

What are minimum income requirements?

Rules stipulating that a UK citizen must earn a certain amount to bring over a foreign spouse were first introduced by the coalition government in 2015, as part of a raft of changes designed to reduce net migration. The precise number of people separated by the rule is not clear, but Oxford’s Migration Observatory suggests it could be in the tens of thousands. Until last year, the minimum income requirement (MIR) was £18,600 a year. In April 2024, the Conservative government raised this to £29,000 and set out plans to increase it again to around £38,700 in 2025, claiming this would reduce net migration and ensure families could support themselves without becoming a burden to the taxpayer. The plans to increase the MIR to £38,700 were paused after Labour won the general election last year. It commissioned a review of the MIR rules in September 2024, looking at financial requirements across family immigration routes to ensure a “clear and consistent” system. The review, carried out by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), found that the £29,000 threshold is “high compared to other high-income countries, with those placing greater weight on family life relative to economic wellbeing”. The MAC urged against increasing the MIR to £38,700, but offered Labour the discretion to decide “what changes are appropriate”. Critics have argued the MIR disproportionately hits poorer families. Roughly half of all employees in the UK earn less than £29,000 per year, according to a parliamentary research briefing on the issue. (Photo: Andrey Popov/Getty)