The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Couple’s Fife Christmas scuppered by visa hitch
Woman refused UK entry due to too-advanced English qualifications
A Fife man’s dream of Christmas with his pregnant wife in their new home has been dashed – because her language qualification for entry to the UK is too advanced.
Bobby Rintoul hoped to settle into the house he has bought with Indian national Alexandria in St Andrews where the couple could enjoy their first festive season as a married couple before the birth of their child next year.
However, Alexandria was shocked to learn her visa had been refused, despite her completing a degree in English and passing an exam which would allow her to study at the country’s top universities.
Bobby, 33, is now worried that if they encounter any more hitches in her new application she might be heavily pregnant, or even looking after a newborn baby, rendering her unable to make the long flight by the time her case is dealt with.
He said: “We were ready to start our life together here.
“It would be our first Christmas in our new house and her first in Scotland.
“It was her dream and it’s been taken away over such a trivial issue.”
Musician Alexandria, 22, sat an International English Language Testing System exam as recommended by a lawyer while she was in Edinburgh during a previous visit.
The Home Office requires an ILETS pass for immigration – but not the more advanced one Alexandria has.
Engineer Bobby, from Lower Largo, said: “She passed a test that entitles her to go to university, Oxford, Cambridge, you name it. She should have passed the test which entitles her to wash dishes in a kebab shop.”
While they deal with her application, Alexandria has been staying in hotels in Bangalore, which is a four-hour journey from her home in Shillong, a hill station in the north-east state of Meghalaya.
Bobby, who has booked a flight to India at short notice so they can be reunited at Christmas for the first time in three months, reckons the rejection has cost them around £4,000.
The couple met when Bobby, who works in the oil and gas industry, spent a year and a half in India. They moved to Dubai before Bobby returned home, hoping to be followed shortly by Alexandria.
North East Fife MP Stephen Gethins has stepped in to help.
He said: “This is a very difficult time for Mr Rintoul and his family and I have made repeated calls to the UK Visa and Immigration service but, like many of my colleagues, am frustrated by the lack of communication by that department and the impact this has on constituents who are rightly worried about their loved ones.
“Too often I am finding constituents who have been left in an incredibly difficult position by a system that makes life unnecessarily stressful for people.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Some applicants for visas to settle in the UK need to pass an English language test at an approved centre that is specified in the immigration rules.
“Mrs Rintoul failed to do this and also failed to submit the necessary supporting evidence for her application.
“It is open to her to reapply under the priority visa service.”