Sri Lankan wedding cake. Once I was dusting off my wedding suit and found some cake from a year before. It looked the same.
I recently wrote about gay marriage, which is not even on the radar in Sri Lanka. But we have another type of marriage discrimination here as well. Foreign marriage. If you marry someone non Sri Lankan, they can never become a citizen. Their lives and their rights to even be in the same country as their children are permanently unstable, and it’s patently unfair.
Sri Lanka has no immigration policy. At all. There is one loophole, if you bring in a shitload of investment or are a celebrity like Arthur C. Clarke then maybe. If you meet a nice girl and want to open roti shop and settle down, citizenship is simply not possible. Besides that one loophole, there is not path to citizenship unless you’re off Sri Lankan descent, and even dual citizenship has been (temporarily) shut down. We’re calling for foreign investment and support but making it impossible for people that love the country to settle down here. It’s dumb.
More pressingly, it’s also cruel and unfair. If you marry someone it means something, and in most countries it is a pathway to citizenship. This is important because it gives both partners equal property rights, legal rights, etc. In Sri Lanka, let’s say you’re an Australian woman that marries a Sri Lankan and has kids. Things don’t work out and you get a divorce. Since you’re on a spousal visa, at that point you actually need to leave. You have to leave your kids and apply for some other sort of visa, if you’re lucky. This is a policy that can break up families, which is deeply uncool.
What’s shocking is that a fair amount of powerful people have married foreigner yet seem to do little to budge this law. Off the top of my head, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and former Minister Milinda Moragoda. Not to mention businessmen, lawyers, whatever. They have an interest and they should push.
I personally think Sri Lankan immigration should be possible, if you love the country, are willing to work for the country, there should be some pathway by which you can become a citizen. That’s the hallmark of an open and productive country – one which can attract and retain the best talent. That’s what’s makes the US so productive and – historically – it’s what’s made Sri Lanka awesome as well. I mean, I hate to break it to you, but we all came from India at some point (via Africa). And we all got a fair amount of Tamil in us, probably a lot of Malayali, Arab, Dutch, Portugeuse, whatever. Sri Lanka is an island and we’re built on immigration. Back then there was no policy and things got a bit weird, but I think we can handle some immigration now, legally. We should start with people that marry Sri Lankans. Because, really, it’s only fair.
There was an announcement today that the government is ready to restart the dual citizenship programme, but no details as to what the new regulations would be. In the past few weeks I have seen some speculation that dual citizens might be denied certain rights, such as the right to engage in ‘political activity’, whatever that means. Given that there was no clear rationale for stopping the dual citizenship process in 2010, I wait to see what the government comes up with in the new scheme.
I agree with your point that there should be routes to citizenship for spouses of Sri Lankan citizens – especially if the government is serious in wanting the Sri Lankan diaspora to return and contribute to the development of the country.
Why make it easier for foreigners to come and colonize?
Besides, the reason Sri Lankans marry foreigners is to get citizenship from their partners country..lol.. So I dont think any of those “powerful people” you mention will do anything about this.
Hey Indi,
Wish you would help circulate this video:
http://groundviews.org/2012/05/16/a-different-take-from-the-sangha-the-dhamma-and-religious-co-existence-in-sri-lanka/
The message in it is one of assimilation, something that should be spread wide.
Seriously, colonize? I’m talking about people getting married.
It would be amusing if the denial of the right to engage in political activity was a condition considering the status of some of the brothers…oh wait..that’s royalty not politics.
tsk!tsk! You do realise that lèse majesté is tantamount to treason, don’t you?
Well, if they include that rule they could include a clause that it doesn’t apply retrospectively. However, it would be funny if they forgot to make sure of that :-)
Hi Indi,
I am a foreign spouse and have gone through all the processes here. Ultimately to get a better understanding of the rules and regulations it is best to head to the immigration office yourself. Firstly with regards to foreign spouses marrying Sri Lankan nationals, the first right I think a spouse should have is the right to work. There is great contribution to be given but foreign spouses are not allowed to work unless you get a work permit from an organisation willing to sponsor or set up your own company with a Sri Lankan national. It is the right of a government to protect employment opportunities for their citizens which is their first priority, but if there is great contribution to be given by a foreign national – i say great why not.
With regards to Citizenship, I believe a spouse has the right to start the process of requesting for citizenship after 7 years(ref point immigration act 1956 but this may be outdated). As said it is always best to head to the immigration department and although the processes are tiring and frustrating at times, to be fair they do give you the answers you are looking for. The problem i have found is that most people are unaware of the right processes and go through intermediary parties who don’t have the correct answers themselves hence the confusion and frustration. Go to the source i say which are the respective ministries that handle various issues – in this case the immigration department. I say this from experience and share this as it will ease the process for those experiencing the same challenges i went through and it might ease the process. Another point to add – when dealing with government ministries i think it is important for the foreign national to also put themselves in the officer’s shoes to try and understand their plight. I have found that with patience, understanding and an attempt to listen to their feedback has open more doors in return.
Cheers
Cheers!
Hi Indi
A good read and topic as usual.
I agree with Roshnee on the aspect that people don’t go to immigration office directly and hence don.t have right information. I am a foreign spouse and being here for 12 years almost now. I have been on investment visa and never needed to change to spouse visa status till very recently. I went to immigration office and it was a pleasant experience meeting the Dy- Director there. Gentleman explained the whole process of spouse visa and asked me to come with my wife to meet him the next day. We both went as advised to meet him and pleasantly my Visa status was changed within few hours. I never needed to leave the country and come back again with some documents and stuff.
I would like to add here something on GENDER situation also. If you are a Male Spouse you will not get the Passport or Dual nationality (if your country allows dual nationality) but if you are a female spouse you can not only get the Dual nationality but also can get Sri Lankan Passport. I have many foreign friends who have taken Sri Lankan Passport.
Good thing about spouse visa is that its issued for a longer period unlike the BOI or professional visas. Also Spouse visa is FREE. You don’t have to pay thumping fees.
Hope Sri Lankan immigration looks into the employment and Gender barrier status soon.
Cheers
Acro you’re a dickhead, just wanted to let you know. And my cousin is married to a Russian and she (Russian) wants to live here so screw you.
You may be right about the seven year thing
http://www.immigration.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=148&Itemid=187&lang=en
“Besides that one loophole, there is not path to citizenship unless you’re off Sri Lankan descent…”
Please fix the grammatical errors in the above.
aaah but with a bit of something something under the table…. all options are open….
Hi Roshnee
In your rush to kindness about the Immigration Department, I respectfully comment that you do not state a fully accurate position. I have also had repeat communications with the Immigration Department and have found them to be inconsistent and unable to give practical assistance, though the majority were friendly and responded well to friendliness. I don’t think the problem lies with the officials you can meet, but with the lawmakers.
Sri Lanka doesn’t have much in the way of open policy/regulation at the best of times. Perhaps it helps officials to charge for doing ‘favours’ which may in fact be your legal right, or maybe it’s just inefficiency, but either way it is tough to find out what you can and can’t do as a Sri Lankan, let alone as a foreigner. However, with tenacity it can usually be done.
Here are perhaps the most pressing issues:
1) You can get a spouse visa relatively easily and for a nominal processing charge, but you can only get a maximum of 2 years before having to renew. If your Sri Lankan spouse does not approve of the renewal, or the Govt has another reason for not wanting you in the country (for example maybe you do some work as a journalist, work for an NGO or upset the wrong person), that’s it, bad luck, get lost. What if you have a job here, set up a business, have an interest in property, own a car, have children here? Even if one lived in Sri Lanka for decades, your permit to live in Sri Lanka is at risk every two years and is effectively revoked upon separation. You stand to lose everything. Few right-minded people are willing to invest in a life in Sri Lanka with this level of vulnerability.
2) Right to work. This is a tricky area, but have a look at the policy here: http://www.mea.gov.lk/index.php/home/secretary-of-external-affairs/887?task=view
What you’ll see, in broken English, is that for foreign spouses “there is no restriction on employment in private sector and they can engage in any lawful profession on trade of their choice.” So you don’t need a work permit or indeed to go into business with a Sri Lankan. Only you do, because few seem to recognise this policy. At the apparently helpful Immigration Department, which didn’t see fit to point this out to Roshnee and only talked about it after I brought it up, they advised me that of course there’s no restriction on working or setting up my own business but: (a) if I want to get a job, then practically I’ll need to get a work permit/sponsorship (when asked for the source, they told me not many understand the law…), (b) of course there’s no restriction on setting up a business, but if I want to I should put 99% of the company in my Sri Lankan wife’s name (when asked for the source of this percentage, he didn’t know and he’s wrong), and (c) though there are no such restrictions and the policy on the website is correct, the Immigration Department absolutely will not put anything in writing to confirm this.
3) Right to access and visas for foreign parents of dependent children in Sri Lanka. Good luck with this. While there are examples where this happens, there is no absolute right to it and there is no such category within the published immigration rules, such as they are.
4) Property rights. Not long ago, a foreigner couldn’t own land in Sri Lanka, now they can but at 100% tax rate. So there are schemes whereby foreigners seek to avoid these discriminatory restrictions, for example by setting up a company and the foreigner having a minority share, or by setting up a 99 year lease. So you have to seek legal advice and structure your affairs very carefully. If it’s your money buying the property, you will lose over 50% of the equity immediately. If there was a divorce, what happens then? Not sure. Fortunately, it does at least appear that a foreign spouse can inherit property free of the standard 100% tax if their Sri Lankan spouse should unfortunately die (see Finance Act No. 11 of 1963).
5) Dual-citizenship. The rules are still in a state of flux, having been suspended, but the general scenario is this: in order to pass the first applicability stage for dual-nationality, you must have been born in Sri Lanka or your parents were born in Sri Lanka. Therefore my Sri Lankan spouse can get dual-nationality with the country of my birth, but I cannot with Sri Lanka unless I’m a ‘person of stature’. There does exist the option after living here for seven years to apply for citizenship, but why would one do that? It’s not like Sri Lanka has optimal visa arrangements with other countries, not least with Sri Lanka’s new bestest friend, China.
In the UK, a foreign fiancee can get a visa to live and work without restriction, provided the couple marry within 2.5 years. A spousal visa is then available, again with no restrictions on work (which, by the way is stated accordingly, unlike the Sri Lankan version which provides no such information) and after another 2 years the foreign spouse can apply for indefinite leave to remain, without restrictions. There are provisions for remaining in the UK even when a marriage has broken down and for access and visas regarding dependent children. Work, benefits, health, education, housing, business, property and inheritance rules are non-discriminatory towards the foreign spouse. After holding ILR for around four years, the foreign spouse can apply for citizenship and they do not need to give up their citizenship or nationality of another country to do so. It’s not as if Sri Lanka would have to invent these new rules from scratch.
There are all kinds of concerns that affect a small, poor country like Sri Lanka with respect to protecting itself from the relative financial might of foreigners, or from external influences, but such protectionism is becoming obsolete in the global economy. Indi makes some good points in this regard, I wonder if anyone’s listening?
“Please fix the grammatical errors in the above.”
Please fix the grammatical error in the above sentence.
My thanks to everyone – well, perhaps not Acro – who has contributed to this. I’ve learned a lot.
As I’ve said in a previous string I’m Sri Lankan-born, lost SL citizenship because of prevailing laws at the time I married a foreign national and obtained foreign citizenship, believing the rest of my life would be in his country, and now after much heart-searching and hand-wringing marital negotiations over the years, we both decided to come and live in SL – hurray!
Now the wait for my dual citizenship to be granted. Then the wait for hubby to get his. In the meantime so much detail over fundamentals like a home, jobs etc. to get sorted. Oh my gosh. But thank you all anyway – I’ve soaked up your info like a sponge.
NB: Not everyone has an ulterior plan in mind when marrying a foreigner. You meet, you fall in love, you think you’re doing the practical thing at the time, you never think 30 or 40 years down the track when your old folk are lonely in their final years apart from you and when your own memories of the home country overwhelm everything else.
perhaps he meant ‘colornize’ :)
Nice topic and a lot of information, within article and the comments. Despite being a descendant I did not succeed in getting the papers I really wanted. On the other hand I did not try hard enough. I will be back :)
Indi, just came across this and very interesting to read the post and all the comments. Been there, done that with the immigration. One factor however, not mentioned here is of individuals who have one Sri Lankan parent and one foreign parent and they get married to a Sri Lankan. Same complexity as marrying a foreigner and the need to get a visa very two years (provided that the spouse with mixed nationalities decided to choose the foreign nationality over being Sri Lankan). Then come the children.
If you don’t know the law or the guys at immigration don’t feel up to telling you about the policy for children born in Sri Lanka to mixed nationality parents, you end up paying a fine for a six month old child for over staying his visa by five months. Yes, five years ago, when we got our son his foreign passport just before a trip abroad, and i took his passport to immigration to get his free visa that he is entitled to until he is 18 years old, i was told that he had overstayed his visa and i had to pay a fine of over Rs. 5000. No amount of protesting worked at the time and the Add. Commissioner acknowledged the mistake after much coaxing but shrugged and said if i wanted the passport back i had to pay the fine as it was “already in the computer system” and that noting could be done to revers it. So paid the fine, received a temporary extension of his visa and we went overseas. On our return, the immigration officer at the airport was curious why our son had a temporary visa on his passport when he was entitled to visa till he turns 18. Turns out that all i had to do was write two lines on a sheet of paper, requesting that immigration give him a “free visa” that he is entitled to. Loads more like that to deal with, best way i now deal with all the visa issues is be ignorant of the law and go sit in front of a add commissioner at the immigration office and have a good long chat. so far so good.
HI everybody,
I m a wife who got married with Sri lankan and I has been here for 5 years. I m trying to get work permit because I am qualified and I really want to work, but the process at Immigration Department made me confused .
They said:
1. I have to cancel my spouse visa and apply for completely new employment visa. I dont understand about that because i got the job offer to work only for 6 months. If I apply for employment visa I have to pay Rs. 20.000/- per year and visa need to be changed if i change my job as well as renewed for every year
2. I need to have recommendation letter from in line Ministry. (for example Finance Ministry or Central Bank..). But this letter is provided to the person who is expert and the organization is willing to recruit, or who is willing to invest into country rather than small fellow like me who is struggling how to get small amount of income.
And now i dont know what need to do, without work permit i m not able to work in any kind of Sri Lankan organization
Anybody pls help me, I start thinking negatively abt this country
Ayubovan everybody,
It’s needless for me to write a lot. In my case, it’s all documented. It seems to be a never ending story and not over yet. Next court date 05th. August 2016 (District Court of Colombo).
http://mysrilankanangel.blogspot.my/