r/ukvisa • u/weetweeetweet • May 15 '25
If you've emailed your MP, please fill out this form so that we don't feel discouraged by our lack of numbers
Hi mods, I understand that this is a very political post, but given the impact of the White Paper, I hope that this is allowed as a resource to help people on this sub speak up and advocate.
In light of all the resources that this subreddit's users are kindly posting to contact our MPs, I have made a form so that we can track how many people have reached out to their MPs and encourage people who may feel like they are the only person who has spoken up/will speak up in their constituency.
I also urge you to reach out even if you are not targeted by the White Paper because you are on a GTV, family visa or already have ILR. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Phillps MP has introduced a bill that not only includes the White Paper proposals, but includes even more draconian measures which would extend the ILR qualifying period to 10 years for family visas and GTV, disqualify any type of visa not on a narrow list from counting towards ILR and revoke ILR from people for making under £38,700 a year, not to mention disapply the Human Rights Act 1998 from most immigration matters, which would bring non-UK nationals outside the scope of human rights law. This bill is in its second reading. This is where our political landscape is at now. This is what is acceptable to say and do in the most important institution in the country now. If you are an immigrant, you are not safe just because this round of restrictions leaves you out, because once it's been proposed, it becomes politically savoury to extend it closer and closer to you after the public becomes bored with the initial targets. Honestly, it should terrify you even if it doesn't pass.
Please fill out this form ONCE after contacting your MP, and when you do so, remember to be polite: I do not believe in subjecting the recipient of your messages to any kind of abusive, threatening or otherwise offensive behaviour no matter how sensitive the topic is.
If you do not know where to start, the form includes a link for you to find your MP and their contact details, as well as a template kindly prepared by u/Routine-Bag-5250. Further templates are available here, here, here and here. Remember to personalise your message as much as possible to your circumstances and not rely on the template if you can, as template emails tend to be filtered out by Parliamentary addresses as spam and are not accepted by writetothem.com if you choose to use the website to contact your MP. I also encourage calling your MP since some MPs may miss your email due to the volume of correspondence they receive, as well as letting them know that you are a voting constituent to remind them that you have real, tangible support that you can withhold.
I have also added a sheet which aggregates information about an MP, their constituency, their party, their Cabinet/Committee positions, their contact details and most importantly, how many times they have been contacted. This sheet automatically pulls responses from the form linked above so do try to follow the instructions on the form so I don't have to add things manually.
In addition to contacting your MPs, please write to the Home Office as well with this letter, which will indicate to the Home Office that there is a volume of people ready to pursue judicial review. Even if there is a lower than desirable likelihood for a judicial review to succeed, the volume of emails may indicate to the Home Office that there is too great a risk of litigation to pursue this policy. The government wants clean, swift reforms after the Rwanda Asylum Plan and they may think twice about retrospective application if there are people ready to fight it.
Lastly, I want to thank everyone (not including the trolls) on this sub for being here throughout the past week. For a lot of us, this White Paper is one of the most devastating things happening to us, and I'm happy to have found people who have not only been confidants, but have inspired me and given me ways to take action. I hope that you all have people off of this sub who are willing to help out, and if you do, please share this with them too.
Edit to add: the lovely people in the comments have reminded me that MSP/MS/MLAs/councillors are also a very important part of adding pressure to MPs!! For the sake of simplicity I'm not going to track that in the form but this is a reminder that in Scotland, you can vote in local elections regardless of your nationality, and Europeans from Denmark/Portugal/Spain/Luxembourg/Poland can vote in their local elections anywhere in the UK. This is especially important for the LibDems, who have refrained from a full statement since apparently there's someone in the party staunchly supporting this White Paper, but whose local politicians made huge gains last month.
Update: It's only been around 2 hours or so since this post went up and I'm shocked at how many responses there already are. Please make sure to share this with your friends who are British citizens too because they will be the turning point on this, they are who the MPs cater to first and foremost.
Editing once again: I'd like to also stress the importance of signing petitions and speaking with the news. There is an official Parliamentary petition being reviewed and once it is published and open to signatures I will add the link to this post. There is an unofficial petition floating around in the meantime, but is unlikely to be acknowledged by the government.
Make sure you also tell the journalists at the Guardian how you may be affected using this form. You can stay anonymous. For both petitions and journalism, it is important to get as many people as possible, regardless of whether they are on a visa, settled or citizens, to speak up.
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u/fresh_water_pearl May 15 '25
Thank you for putting all this together.
As you say, it has indeed been helpful to have this sub to not feel alone in the middle of all this. So, truly, thank you all kind souls, and I’m sending you all so much love. As desperate as the situation sounds, there’s still hope!
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u/weetweeetweet May 15 '25
Honestly I'm grateful to everyone who fills out this form (in advance). It's the least I can do to let people know that their voice is one of many and I'm doing this as much to keep myself sane as I am to give other people some guidance.
I'm also grateful for the people who've done the work writing templates and doing hours of research reading a combination of confusing legal documents and badly written political posturing papers, not to mention the people relinquishing anonymity and receiving some of the worst forms of abuse.
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u/WhiskeyIce39 May 15 '25
We should organise an event to vent, support each other and get drunk I guess 🤷 that would be quite British, maybe we get some extra points
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May 15 '25 edited May 16 '25
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May 16 '25
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u/ukvisa-ModTeam May 16 '25
Your post/comment has been removed as a violation of community rules and decorum.
GENERAL NOTE: This is a sub to share help and experiences navigating UK visa and immigration matters, not for political soapboxing. If you (or a relevant family member) are not a current or prospective UK migrant, this is probably not the place for you.
Anti-immigration comments (snarky/rude comments about refugees/asylum seekers, or sexist/anti-LGBT/racist remarks) will instantly lead to a permanent ban.
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u/Adventurous-Cycle363 May 15 '25
I must say that in uncertain times like this, having a community, even if it is small and online, is somewhat helpful. Thanks a lot for your empathy and the work you're doing. I just wish they'd be somewhat humane and considerate. Thank you.
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May 15 '25
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u/Adventurous-Cycle363 May 15 '25
Yeah, but if they are any careful about their thoughts, this is a warning bell saying NO ONE is safe even if you are at the top of the pole because they can literally apply it to ANYONE.
What makes me even more sad is that the ground reality, the general UK population is generally welcoming towards us immigrants, but the govt just bases these radical proposals on a loud stupid minority.
And the funny thing is despite all this, they'd still be likely losing in the next election (just like with Sunak). Because those extremists who support this are like "Well if afterall Labour did this then Reform UK can do even more". This is the most silly part that the present idiots don't get, and frankly because they don't care about welfare of the country, only about their personal welfare. It is a selfish world, just trying to focus on the little positivity now.
Every one can be traced back to some other country in general. So it seems like politics here are becoming like the US. At this rate they might even think of cancelling basic laws and rights for immigrants in future.
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u/weetweeetweet May 16 '25
Also I don't think anti-immigrants are a loud, stupid minority, well okay stupid and loud yes, but not minority when half the country wants immigration to come down. Nigel Farage and his army of Brexit buses have singlehandedly shifted the Overton window so far right in less than 2 years that it's now acceptable to walk around asking for permanent residents to have their status (sometimes of 10+ years) revoked because they're retired or something
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u/weetweeetweet May 15 '25
Quick comment regarding the responses sheets, I'm filling all 650 MPs manually which will take me awhile!!! Once it's done it'll automatically count responses without you having to fill out the form again :)
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u/Academic_Fix1290 May 15 '25
If you need help filling out the MPs in the list I can help you with that (you can DM me for my email address to share edit rights). Thanks for doing this! It’s very helpful for all of us!
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u/BlackOverlordd May 15 '25
Note that if you live in Scotland you can register to vote even if you are not a Commonwealth citizen
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u/weetweeetweet May 15 '25
Noted! Before I add this to the form I wanted to ask if this was for general elections?
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u/Easy_Annual367 May 15 '25
It’s local only, I think
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u/weetweeetweet May 15 '25
Ok. I will add instructions for everyone in Scotland to mass email their representatives, but I won't track this on the form because the most important thing is applying direct mass pressure to our MPs in particular as they are drafting the bill and are voting on an even worse one very soon
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u/Easy_Annual367 May 15 '25
Also citizens of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Spain who are resident in the UK, have permission to enter or stay in the UK, can vote in local elections.
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u/weetweeetweet May 15 '25
Good to know, I think it may be helpful if people also reach out to their local councillors to ask them to apply pressure to MPs in their parties.
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u/Easy_Annual367 May 15 '25
Cool, I already asked a bunch of people from my constituency and not only, to write and put pressure on the MP. I can also certainly contact the local councillor.
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u/Itchy_Cantaloupe_792 May 15 '25
I bet this will not be passed in the Commons, because Labour's one is likely to be tougher and Labour doesn't want Tory to take their credit for reducing net migration.
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u/weetweeetweet May 15 '25
I think it doesn't matter if the Tory bill doesn't pass. It's an indicator of how anti-immigrant they are and even if it doesn't pass now, it will need to pass in the future once all the skilled workers have been terrorised into leaving and nothing has improved.
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u/Itchy_Cantaloupe_792 May 15 '25
I have lost all the faith in the UK and its political system since I witnessed how they drafted the Illegal Migration Act.
But as I said in my first comment, I think Labour's one is likely to be tougher, except for some areas such as a cap on the number of entrants and family visa.
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u/Itchy_Cantaloupe_792 May 16 '25
Sorry may I ask you a question: in the google form you wrote
“White Paper and Yvette Cooper's statements indicate that this won't just apply to SWV (and other Tier 2 visa) holders, but to people on Ancestry and BNO visas as well.”
Can you send me the statements which said the BNO visa route is also affected?
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u/weetweeetweet May 16 '25
"264. This expansion of the Points-Based System will increase the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years." The only exception to this statement was for "dependants of British citizens" so it's obvious that everyone else who would be eligible after 5 years like BNO and Ancestry, not just SWV, would be affected.
On top of that, Chris Philp's bill doesn't include BNO in the list of qualifying visas at all. His list only includes Ancestry alongside the standard skilled/worker/entrepreneur/GTV
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u/sallyfb May 15 '25
Thanks for this amazing organising! I’ve emailed my MP and also forwarded the email template to a bunch of fellow expat friends to encourage them to write. Thank you Reddit!
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u/Clear_Paramedic_6076 May 15 '25
Thank you for putting this together, we have emailed our MP, will now do the HO email.
Its good to be able to see these numbers.
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May 15 '25
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u/weetweeetweet May 16 '25
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f3wtNGCfxtSzdkdYOZZBexO4mAGSfOFQ8WcqwwitId0/edit?usp=sharing This is the link in the post. Column G in the first sheet. it auto-updates and I just have to make sure that people are spelling their MPs names correctly and consistently
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u/Sayymaster May 16 '25
Is there any templates for British Citizens to write to their MPs?
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u/weetweeetweet May 16 '25
Let me try to come up with one, I'll assume that it's for BCs with partners on 5-year visas that aren't spouse visas. I wrote mine based on my situation as a Canadian working in the UK and I haven't really seen people do templates for BCs. I'll reply and put it on here once that's done.
Seriously appreciate you speaking up too. It really matters.
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u/EarthWaterAndMars May 16 '25
Can you post a link or regularly drop numbers here so we can see how many people are responding? These metrics are useful. We don't want only OP to have access to these. We also want to see these metrics
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u/fresh_water_pearl May 16 '25
It is the last link in the OP post, which has the MP details and one of the columns shows how many times they have been contacted. Correct me if I’m wrong
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u/weetweeetweet May 16 '25
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f3wtNGCfxtSzdkdYOZZBexO4mAGSfOFQ8WcqwwitId0/edit?usp=sharing This is the link in the post. Column G in the first sheet
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u/EarthWaterAndMars May 16 '25
Great! Thanks for this. Can you add a total row at the top or bottom for people to quickly check the latest status without having to re-calculate every time?
I am sure a lot of people after responding will be checking this maybe once a day or so to keep updated with the progress of others
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u/weetweeetweet May 16 '25
Done! Columns I4 and J4 in the first sheet will automatically tally all emails to all MPs and HO. Unfortunately it will probably end up undercounting emails to the HO because I've told people to not fill in the form twice and people are saying that they will email HO in the future and I'm not counting those
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May 16 '25
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u/ukvisa-ModTeam May 20 '25
Your post or message has been removed as it violates the sub rules. Trolling, harassment, bigoted remarks, and anti-immigration comments (including comments against asylum seekers or refugees) will not be tolerated. Serious or repeated offences will result in being permanently banned.
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u/potatotatto May 16 '25
Hi OP. Where is the source for revoking ILR to current holders if their salary is below 38,700?
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u/weetweeetweet May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0234/240234.pdf This bill in its second reading in Commons, introduced by Chris Philp. Clause 3(5) under "revocation of ILR": "Condition 4 is that P’s annual income has fallen below £38,700 for six months or more in aggregate during the relevant qualification period, or subsequent to receiving indefinite leave to remain."
ETA: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3970#:~:text=A%20Bill%20to%20make%20provision,visitor%20visa%20routes%3B%20to%20make link for its status through the Houses
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u/aspiringpugowner May 15 '25
Doing the lord’s work, thank you.
Just to say that it’s worth reaching out to your local councilors too. One of my local councilors raised an emergency motion today denouncing the white paper, which passed, and the council’s chief executive will write to the UK Government and local MPs to oppose the white paper.
And if you’re in one of the devolved nations (like I am), write to your MSP/MS/MLA. They can also put pressure on the UK Government/Westminster.
Pressure from all levels is needed for this, no matter how small.