David Rushmer, a senior library assistant at the Faculty of English, is fighting a Home Office decision which branded his marriage to Wang Xiang, a Chinese freelance journalist, a "sham".

Rushmer said: “It’s devastating. We are newlyweds and we are being treated like criminals. That is the bottom line. They are suggesting my wife has attached herself to me with the sole intention to gain a UK visa. 

“The amount of evidence we sent was unbelievable. [...] the Home Office defines our marriage as not real based simply on an interview. It is crushing.”

Wang was asked to attend a two-hour interview in Beijing with a UK Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) - over 1,000 miles away from her home on the south coast of China. In that interview, the ECO "assumed that her intention of marrying me was just a convenient escape from the Chinese authorities,” claims Rushmer. Wang is a freelance journalist whose work has included the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

He added: "The ECO asked no personal details about our relationship, and if my wife started to speak about this, he cut her off and asked another question." 

The couple, who initially met on a poetry website in June 2012, married in China a year later. Rushmer has not seen his wife since last July, and has since set up an online petition asking the UK Border Agency to overturn the decision to refuse Wang's application. The petition currently has over 1,000 signatures, and David has contacted his local MP and the Archbishop of Westminster about his case.

Supporters of the campaign include colleagues and University students: "I've worked in the same library for over 10 years and obviously know a lot of University staff and students.

“Those in the know have been overwhelmingly supportive and have signed our online petition [...] even ex-students who remember have also been very supportive and their comments very touching, and much appreciated."

Over 17,000 people are affected each year by Home Office decisions to deny visa applications, which, according to Rushmer, has worsened since the introduction of new regulations on 'spouse visas'. He accuses the new regulations of being “excessively harsh" and of having "torn thousands of families apart." 

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “Each application to enter the UK is considered on its individual merits. Decisions are based on the evidence provided and made in accordance with the immigration rules.

“Permission to enter or remain in the UK on the basis of a relationship with a British citizen will only be granted if the Home Office is satisfied of an applicant’s credibility.”

However Rushmer is concerned about the Home Office's motives: "The government claim that they are concerned that any immigrant to this country should not 'become a burden to the UK taxpayer', what they neglect to inform anyone is that a non-EU immigrant, whether married to a UK spouse or not, has no recourse to public funds. This is the sham, not our marriage."