Couple’s return to work in UK stymied
HOPES that closer ties could be formed between New Zealand and a postBrexit Britain are being thwarted by unexpected immigration woes, former Dunedin resident Alyxandra Lunn says.
‘‘We are trying to raise awareness of the unjust and unfair situation we are all in,’’ Miss Lunn said.
The Otago Daily Times has previously highlighted immigration problems facing former Oamaru resident Lucy Ferguson (25), who has been working as a teacher at Buxton School in Greater London.
But her aim to continue her work there was thwarted by a sudden rise in the number of points required to gain tier 2 visa permission to remain in England, despite strong support from the school to continue her work.
Miss Lunn (30) recently contacted the ODT and said she and her fiance, Jayden Hall (28), had recently been living and working in London, but had been back in Dunedin for the past three months.
‘‘We are both caught up in the same brutal tier 2 visa issues,’’ she said.
There were about 15 other young New Zealanders in the ‘‘same boat’’, about six of them from the South Island.
They were having their lives turned upside down, and this ‘‘huge issue’’ was resulting in some schools and businesses failing to fill important posts, despite New Zealanders who were willing to do the work.
She and her partner had been applying for visas since February, after their earlier tier 5, youth mobility visas — which support twoyear working holidays — had expired.
They had been ‘‘denied twice’’, which had ‘‘put a huge emotional and financial strain on us’’.
‘‘We left behind our flat, our friends, our jobs— our whole lives.’’
She had lost her UK job, despite support from her former employers, but Mr Hall’s bosses were continuing to apply for him to work in the UK.
His employers were finding it hard to fill the post and noone had applied when they had earlier advertised it.
Both Mr Hall and Ms Lunn were from Dunedin, where they had attended King’s and Queen’s high schools respectively, and then studied at Otago Polytechnic.
They were now living with Ms Lunn’s parents in Abbotsford.
Immigration points were based on salary, unless the UK job was on the shortage list, and a minimum salary of £30,000 was required.
Mr Hall had 35 points as a business development manager, employed at JaguarLandRover, but an ‘‘overwhelming’’ rise in tier 2 visa applications since last December had ‘‘driven up’’ the points required from an easy 21 to an ‘‘unattainable 50 points’’.
This reflected an income of about £50,000, and showed the British Home Office was ‘‘giving preference to high earners’’.
Miss Lund said she and Ms Ferguson were part of a group of 16 ‘‘skilled professionals’’ from New Zealand, named ‘‘Visa Survivors’’, who were all ‘‘at the mercy of a broken bureaucratic system’’ over immigration.
Group members had contacted British Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn’s office and London Mayor Sadiq Khan to raise their concerns, she said.