Calgary family may be deported from Scotland

Home Office rejects bid to extend visas

Any day now, a Calgary couple who invested more than $400,000 in establishing a Scottish community’s only general store could get word that their last-ditch effort to remain in the U.K. has been rejected. Their bank accounts could be frozen and they may have as few as 72 hours to pack up their possessions and get their five children out of Britain.

Jason and Christy Zielsdorf, who own and operate a shop, café and holiday accommodations in Laggan, in the county of Inverness, are facing deportation after the U.K.’s immigration department, the Home Office, rejected their application to extend a business visa.

The Zielsdorfs’ “crime” was failing to meet stringent criteria required by a business visa that doesn’t take into account unique challenges faced by entrepreneurs in rural Scotland, Jason said. Namely, they could afford only one full-time employee, not two.

The Home Office also claims the couple failed to provide evidence of self-employment and to submit tax returns, which they deny.

Now the Zielsdorfs are being forced to leave the U.K. before they have even had a chance to sell their business: Laggan Stores Coffee Bothy and Wayfarer’s Rest.

The U.K.’s immigration department doesn’t care that the Zielsdorfs’ neighbours say the family provides a vital service, their local MP said.

“The Zielsdorfs are yet another Highland family caught in the trap of the one-size-fitsall policy which has no bearing on the needs of Highland communities,” Drew Hendry said in a statement.

The couple’s story has been held up in the U.K. as an example of bureaucracy gone mad. “How we lost the plot on immigration: As a one-legged Albanian drug-dealing murderer gets citizenship, benefits and a home, two utterly decent and hardworking families face being expelled,” a Daily Mail headline reads.

The Zielsdorfs moved their family to Scotland in 2008 so Jason could study theology at St. Andrews University. After he graduated, they decided to stay.

The family moved to Laggan, the idyllic village of 300 where the BBC drama Monarch of the Glen was set. In 2014, they bought the local general store, which was popularized as MacKechnie’s in the series. It had sat empty for about 18 months, and they set about renovating and restoring the building.

The couple added a café and they renovated a small apartment to be rented out to tourists.

In total, they poured about 240,000 pounds ($445,000) — more than the required 200,000 pounds — into the purchase of the business and renovations.

The trouble started when the Zielsdorfs had to apply to extend their business visa last March.

Although they could afford to employ only one fulltime employee for a year, they hoped the Home Office would use some discretion when assessing their application. They also submitted 67 letters of support written by neighbours and tourists.

But last June, after the business had finally “come into its own,” their application was rejected. And the Home Office refused to read any of the letters because they were printed “on the wrong form,” Jason said.

As to the Home Office’s claims that the couple failed to submit proof of self-employment and tax returns with their application, the department has confirmed that official documents submitted with the application — including tax returns, Jason’s Canadian ID, birth and marriage certificates — have gone missing.

Hendry raised their case with the prime minister on April 27 and David Cameron promised to look into the matter. Instead, he just referred it back to the Home Office, Hendry said.

In February, the family was given just four months to get out of the U.K. Now they are living in limbo after their caseworker awarded Hendry some time to fight for a meeting with Home Office minister James Brokenshire.

If the meeting is vetoed, or goes poorly, the Zielsdorfs could receive a 72-hour notice to leave the country, Jason said. He called the situation scary and overwhelming.

“We’ve invested a lot financially, but our lives are also here,” he said.

THE ZIELSDORFS ARE YET ANOTHER HIGHLAND FAMILY CAUGHT IN THE TRAP OF THE ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL POLICY. — U.K. MP DREW HENDRY

A Calgary couple who invested more than $400,000 in establishing the only general store in the Scottish community of Laggan, in the county of Inverness, is facing the threat of deportation from the U.K.’s immigration office.

The U.K. Home Office says Jason and Christy Zielsdorf failed to fulfil their business visa criteria because they didn’t have two full-time employees on their payroll.