Back in December Cheryl and I applied for an unmarried partner visa so Cheryl could continue to stay in the UK, keep her job, live in her house, and continue our relationship sensibly.

The main requirements were that we’d lived together in a serious and committed relationship for 2 years. We have lived together for almost 3 years now. Sadly, the proof required by the UK Border Agency basically only included letters from utilities companies or the government. When we first moved in together I had my own house. I was on all of the bills there, so I didn’t get myself added to Cheryl’s too.

The application letter said that it was advisable to get letters from people we lived with, or people who knew we lived together to cover any months we couldn’t account for ourselves. We got Rik to write us a letter because he introduced us and has known us both longer than we have known each other. We also got Tsomo to write us a letter because we lived with her at Ropewalk Court in Nottingham over 2 years ago.

When we got the reply from the UKBA it said that Cheryl’s visa application was rejected because they didn’t believe we met the definition of partners and we hadn’t been living together for long enough.

It’s infuriating to have some organisation make a decision about your entire future based on whether E-On can say you were living together or not.

We’ve requested an oral appeal, and submitted nearly 50 pages of Facebook relationship data to support that we’ve been together for more than long enough.

If they still say we weren’t together I’m not sure how we can prove it. It seems a lot like we’re being assumed guilty until we can prove we’re innocent here.