Family in f ight to stay on verge of deportation
Australians could be sent packing in days by Home Office after collapse of job offer
A YOUNG family fighting to stay in Scotland could be deported in a matter of days after a job offer fell through.
Kathryn and Gregg Brain and their seven-year-old son Lachlan face being deported by immigration officials on Monday.
The couple, who moved from Australia five years ago for a new life in Dingwall, Ross-shire, had been banking on a role at a local community-run distillery to meet the visa requirements needed to stay, but have now been told there is no suitable job.
Mr Brain said: ‘It leaves us without an employer, which leaves us without a means of putting together a Tier 2 visa application, which requires an employer and a specific position to be able to go ahead. We are really hoping for the proverbial miracle.’
The Brains fell in love with the Highlands while on holiday and decided to make it their home. Mrs Brain took a place at the University of the Highlands and Islands studying Scottish history and archaeology, with her family listed as dependents on her student visa.
Mr Brain had been working fulltime as a receptionist in a legal office, while their son was schooled entirely in Gaelic. But only ten months after they moved to Scotland, the poststudy work visa with which the family had planned to stay in the country was scrapped. Mrs Brain’s student visa expired in December, and since then they have been fighting to stay.
Mr Brain said: ‘We are still very much hoping the Home Office will honour the offer they made to us six years ago when they said, “If you uproot and move to the UK, we will promise you two years of work past when your studies are finished.” We are still hopeful the Home Office might
‘We are hoping for a miracle’
see there is an issue of integrity and honesty at stake here and that they will do the right thing. As things stand, we have a week to find an employer and get an application in.’
This is not the first time the family have faced such a tight deadline. Earlier this year, amid mounting political and public pressure, the Home Office granted them an extension days before they were to be deported, so they could try to meet the visa requirement. With the new deadline on August 1, Mr Brain said: ‘There have been times we have dropped Lachlan off at a play date with friends so we can just go home and hold each other and cry. It’s been an extraordinarily stressful period for us.’
The family have been helped by their MP, Ian Blackford, and the local community which says the area is crying out for young families such as the Brains.
In May the family had a meeting with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who also gave them her support.
A benefactor, who has asked to remain anonymous, has even offered to pay up to £4,000 in legal fees to cover any costs an employer might encounter.
‘We don’t do giving up,’ Mr Brain added. ‘We have committed our entire lives to this, we are not going to give up. We will be continuing to fight.’
Nationalist MP Mr Blackford said he was still urging the Home Office to honour the original agreement to give the family a two-year post-study visa, adding: ‘I would encourage anyone who does have the potential to employ either Gregg or Kathryn in a post that would be Tier 2 compliant to get in touch with my office.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘All visa applications are considered on their individual merits, and applicants must provide evidence to show they meet the requirements of the immigration rules.’