Love’s Labour’s Won as Cambridge librarian reunited with his wife

Following a viral online petition and many months of campaigning, the librarian and his spouse have finally been reunited.

David Rushmer and his wife, Wang Bang, were married in China in June 2013.

Ever since the couple have been forced to fight a protracted battle with the UK Border Agency over whether Ms Wang could legally be allowed to live in Britain.

Four months after their wedding, the couple were shocked to find out that Ms Wang’s request for a visa had been refused, after the UK Border Agency ruled that the marriage’s intentions were not genuine.

But finally Bang’s application for a spouse visa at the British embassy in Beijing has been approved after a successful court appeal.

Finally reunited

The couple, who first met in June 2012 through a poetry website, had been forcibly separated since July 2013 due to the UK Border Agency’s belief that Ms Wang married Mr Rushmer in order to escape scrutiny from the Chinese government after her past involvement with human rights advocacy groups.

Ms Wang is also an established writer, having published eight books in China and France.

Awww

After attention from the national press, and contributions from eleven witnesses called to the courtroom by the couple during the appeal, a Judge has ruled that the decision made by the UK Border Agency was unjustifiable.

Last weekend, David and Bang announced that their case had finally reached a positive conclusion, with the Judge ruling that he has “no hesitation in finding on the voluminous evidence before [him] that there is a genuine and subsisting relationship between the parties”.

Rushmer is quick to point out that there are still approximately “17,000 people currently separated by these rulings”.

Currently, the burden of proof is on a spouse to prove that a marriage is legitimate. This long appeal suggests that actually proving something constructive to the UK Border Agency is a difficult task.

Who said romance is dead?

On a tumblr page entitled “Our ‘sham marriage'”, Ms Wang has been posting holiday photos of herself together with her husband, to show the stupidity of officials who doubted the strength of their relationship.

We wish them many happy years together.