Navy pilot and US wife who he cannot bring home
A DECORATED Royal Navy pilot nicknamed “Top Gun” by his peers has told how his American wife has been left homeless while the Home Office decides whether she can join him in Britain.
Commander Simon Rawlins, 39, said in a letter to The Daily Telegraph that his wife, Marianne, 34, was stuck in limbo after he was posted home from the United States.
Commenting on reports that the military could be deployed to protect the borders after Brexit, Commander Rawlins said: “Perhaps I will be able to join the Home Office in preventing my wife from entering the country.”
The couple met while Commander Rawlins, who clocked up a record number of flying hours in Afghanistan, was posted to the US to support its navy. They have been living together for the past two years.
Mrs Rawlins has applied for a visa but is still waiting for it to be processed after being told her application was “not straightforward”. She said she had been left homeless and with few possessions – having shipped most of them to the UK in anticipation of joining her husband. Mrs Rawlins said she had been forced to spend a considerable amount of money on temporary solutions to ensure her risk management consultancy business was not viewed as unstable.
Last night a spokesman for the Home Office said: “We are looking into the application made by Marianne Rawlins urgently to seek to resolve the situation as it contained insufficient information to be processed.”
SIR – I was interested to read that Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, is considering deploying the Army to protect our borders in the event of a no-deal Brexit (report, October 18).
My wife, a US citizen whom I met and married while on a four-year secondment to the US Navy, has been homeless in her own country for nearly three months while the Home Office decides on her eligibility to join me in Britain after my posting home.
If Amber Rudd extends the blockade to include the Navy, perhaps I will be able to join the Home Office in preventing my wife from entering the country.
Commander Simon Rawlins RN High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire