News
Lankan citizens’ foreign spouses beset by visa woes
Every two years, 80-year-old Gunvor Pieris trundles off to the Department of Immigration and Emigration to get her Sri Lankan resident visa renewed. And she has been doing this for more than fifty years.
Like every other foreign spouse with a Sri Lankan partner, Gun isn’t entitled to permanent residency in this country–not ever. The German national married her Sri Lankan husband in England and, in 1961, shifted here.
“At first, it was each year,” Gun said. “Now it’s every two years. I came here in 1961 and it is still going on.”
To get her resident visa extended, Gun needs a recommendation letter from her husband. After his death in 2016, she gets its from one of her three children who holds Sri Lankan citizenship. “They come with me to the Immigration Department because I’m almost blind,” she said.
Gun was the only person interviewed for this article who did not mind being named: “I’m too old to be thrown out,” she said. Everyone else wanted even their nationalities left out. Foreign spouses of Sri Lankan men or women sacrifice a lot more than their home countries to be here. They are constrained to give up fundamental rights.
“My biggest worry is what would happen if I should die tomorrow,” said a Sri Lankan whose European husband has lived here for nearly two decades. They have no children. “This country taxes him like any other citizen. But the moment I am gone, he loses all rights for what he has already paid and contributed.”
Widowed spouses usually have their children, if Sri Lankan, issue the recommendation (as in Gun’s case) or, if childless, write a request letter by themselves. But many families are unaware of these provisions. “There should be a clear alternative to maintain the status quo in case of death of the Sri Lankan spouse and divorce due to fault or initiative of the Sri Lankan spouse,” one local wife said.
Work status is ambiguous. Permission for employment falls under a separate resident visa category—not that of spouse—and covers such persons as required for projects approved by the State or Board of Investment (BOI), volunteers and employees of NGOs or private companies, etcetera. Spouses don’t make the list.
An amendment extending this entitlement to foreign spouses was approved by the Cabinet and is awaiting formalisation in law, said C. Hettiarachchi, Controller (Visa). But some do work even now, grace to the aforementioned ambiguity: Spouse visas once decreed that the holder may not have employment here but in recent years that clause has been dropped. “We work by default,” one said.
This is clearly a grey area because Mr Hettiarachchi insisted that prevailing laws do not allow foreign spouses to work in Sri Lanka. That status quo will remain until new rules are promulgated, he said.
“Many expatriate Sri Lankans are willing to come back here and work for one-tenth of what they get overseas,” observed one employer. “But they don’t want to do it because of the inability of their spouses to work. That stymies the country’s progress.”
A divorced foreign partner is no longer entitled to a spouse visa. If the marriage has produced children and they are still minors, the foreign spouse must rely on a visit or other visa to see them in Sri Lanka. Some have floated BOI companies to stay on and continue to be present in their children’s lives.
One European whose marriage to a Sri Lankan broke down many years ago said he was not given a visa even though their child was three at the time. “The Controller told me, ‘Don’t divorce, then!’,” he recalled. “I replied that the courts and the Government of Sri Lanka permit divorce. He said, ‘No problem, you can come as a tourist to visit your son’.”
This, he pointed out, contravenes a child’s right to access both parents. “When I objected and asked the Controller to give me a visa to look after my son as the mother wasn’t working, he asked me to leave the office,” he said.
This man said he then “organised himself differently” so he could stay on. But he advocated for the rights of all foreigners with Sri Lankan spouses whom, he insists, must have equal rights.
“Formally, to invest in a company here, I must go through the BOI with a minimum investment of US$ 250,000,” he remarked. “Do we ask Sri Lankans who migrate to Europe to show such sums? The answer is ‘no’ so this is again a breach of international treaties.”
“Do you think if a Sri Lankan in Germany buys a house, he will pay 100 percent more taxes than a German?” he asked. “The answer is ‘no’. Do you think that a regularly migrated Sri Lankan to France needs to have a French partner in his company regaining 51 percent of shares to be allowed to open the company? The answer is ‘no’.”
There are, of course, loopholes, he said: “A visa underground system, other ways. But we want rights, not loopholes. Ninety-percent of us are entrepreneurs, bringing jobs and ideas to the country. We are not a burden to anyone here, neither for our pensions nor for anything else.”
As foreign spouses pay the same taxes as Sri Lankan citizens, give them the same rights in employment and property ownership, urged one Sri Lankan interviewee.
“Because restrictions on land alienation apply to foreign nations, my husband cannot own land except in the case that I gift it to him,” she observed. “He can’t buy his own, even with his earnings. The property we live in currently is under my name but we purchased it with our joint earnings.”
Inheriting from her is possible but complicated. “And if I gift it to him now and place it under his name only, as joint is not allowed either, then we have other complications if we wanted to mortgage or something,” she said.
There were conflicting accounts about entitlement to loans. Some said there was no law to bar foreign spouses from taking one but that “the banks are very reluctant”.
Others said they could not get a loan. “Even his ATM card is confined to Sri Lanka while mine is global,” said one Sri Lankan wife. “There are also restrictions for him to have a normal rupee account.” (Foreign spouses can only hold local currency accounts jointly with their Sri Lankan spouses).
A 50-year-old European woman said she came to Sri Lanka in 1995 after marrying her Sri Lankan partner. Their two children were born here. She worked for a short period during the United National Front Government from 2001-2004 when Ranil Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister and when, she said, there was a liberal approach to foreign spouses gaining employment.
But a regime change put paid to that, she continued. And when she tried to withdraw her EPF and ETF, the authorities claimed she was not entitled to it because she had violated the law. She did get the money–15 years later–when she secured an employment visa.
“To get that working visa, I had to go back to Europe, because I was not allowed to change from spouse to working visa without leaving the country,” she recounted. “It involved the cost of a return ticket.”
When she finished that job in one year and sought to return to spouse visa status, the Immigration Department objected. “I told them I had trained Sri Lankans to do the job and I wanted my spouse visa back,” she said. “It was very difficult to regain that status. But my husband can work in my country with no problem.”
Simple issues like entrance tickets at temples, parks, etc, are also a challenge to foreign spouses. “Some accept the Sri Lankan price for resident visa holders,” she said.
“Others implement three systems–Sri Lankan, resident foreigner and non-resident foreigner.”
The vagueness and uncertainty are emotionally taxing. But the community does not advocate campaign openly for change. “Many foreign spouses are scared that their status will change if the Government switches again,” said one. The fear is deep-rooted among many of them, that their visa will not be renewed or, even worse, they might be deported if they complain.”
“Frankly, I have nightmares the day before I go for renewal (of residence visa) because the Immigration Department has the power to mess up our whole life and what we have built together by just one stamp on the passport,” said another.
The issues of foreign spouses and their families get little or no political attention. The foreigners have no vote (even longstanding residents like Gun). “Plus, nobody wants to hear a foreigner moaning!” commented one man, sardonically.
Nevertheless, these are pressing questions of basic rights; and of fundamental entitlements that Sri Lankans themselves claim abroad.