Visa error delays wedding
YAEL MAMREN of Gateshead can be grateful that her groom arrived late to their wedding on Monday.
If British immigration authorities had had their way, he might never have been under the chupah at all.
Yisroel Goldenberg, a Los Angelesborn yeshivah student from Jerusalem, had to spend last Shabbat in a detention centre, fly back to Israel and then return a day later to get married.
It was only thanks to concerted negotiations and lobbying in high places that he was finally able to celebrate his wedding.
When Mr Goldenberg first arrived at Heathrow last Thursday, he was denied entry by immigration officers, thanks to a mistakenly filled out visa.
One of the local Orthodox Jewish activists who later helped him told the JC: “He had filled out a marriage visa, which was a mistake. Someone must have advised him badly because you don’t need one if you are simply coming here to get married and then return shortly afterwards, as he intended to. He could have come here on a tourist visa.”
Although the authorities wanted to put Mr Goldenberg on a plane back to Israel the following day, he did not want to risk arriving after the onset of Shabbat. He was also hoping the authorities might have a change of mind.
He was sent to Colnbrook detention centre and the Society for the Welfare of Jewish Prisoners arranged for kosher food. First thing on Sunday morning he returned to Israel, where efforts were already being mounted on his behalf.
Aryeh Deri, the Interior Minister, contacted the Prime Minister’s Office and the British consulate arranged for a visa waiver enabling Mr Goldenberg to make a second attempt to get married in Britain.
According to the source, it should have been plain sailing when he landed again on Monday. “But there was a bit of a delay, I am not sure why. I heard the name of Brandon Lewis [the UK Immigration Minister] mentioned, I don’t know if he was involved.”
Luckily Mr Goldenberg was cleared to attend his nuptials, arriving an hour and a half late.