Husband’s debilitating cancer doesn’t ease Ottawa woman’s ability to return to Britain
How unconscionable is British immigration?
Maria and David Summers, Canadian citizens who planned to spend their retirement years in Ottawa and England, where David was born and they have a home, are living 5,500 kilometres apart again.
But it is even a sadder and more distressing situation than when the Public Citizen first reported their story last March.
Elected to the Herefordshire County Council in May, David underwent surgery for bladder cancer last week — he says the operation “was a nightmare of complications” — and now is recovering alone at home in Hereford, a city in southwestern England.
“I am a bit of a blank tonight, it’s after 2 a.m. and unable to sleep, so yes, some days are harder than others,” David wrote in an email to the Citizen on Friday.
The couple’s troubles started in the spring of 2014 after Maria’s tourist visa to the United Kingdom expired due to an oversight and some bad advice from a British immigration officer, and she was forced to return to Canada. Back in Ottawa, she applied to re-enter the U.K. as a permanent resident, sponsored by David, a British subject.
But in denying her application, immigration raised doubts about their marriage of 45 years.
The couple was married in a civil ceremony in Kingston in 1970, and renewed their vows in a church wedding a year later in Holland, where Maria was born.
“You have not provided any evidence that your relationship is still subsisting,” wrote an immigration officer who reviewed her application.
“I … am not satisfied your relationship with your sponsor is genuine and subsisting or that you intend to live together permanently in the U.K.”
Shocked, she appealed the decision and returned to England as a visitor last March. Then in June an immigration appeal tribunal accepted their marriage as an “affectionate relationship” in June but still denied a permanent residency visa because the tribunal felt their joint income was inadequate. As a result, Maria would have to leave the U.K. on Aug. 23.
David, 70, was diagnosed with bladder cancer on Aug. 6 and underwent surgery on Aug. 20, three days before Maria, 67, had to take her return flight to Canada. He went home from hospital Thursday.
Following David’s diagnosis in early August, Maria emailed immigration and explained David’s situation, stressing the need for her to remain in England to care for him.
She asked that permission for a second appeal — this one on the decision not to give her permanent residency based on their joint income — be granted and a hearing held immediately in the hope that a visa would be issued (Maria says the tribunal failed to take into account all their income sources). Immigration asked for a formal request by letter and proof of David’s cancer diagnosis.
She replied quickly, providing medical documents by special delivery post.
But as of last Sunday — her deadline to leave the U.K. — she had not received an answer and so boarded a plane to Canada. To add to Maria’s worries, David’s 95-year-old mother, whom the couple was looking after and is suffering from terminal cancer, fell on the day of his operation, just before caregivers were to arrive to feed her. She was treated in hospital emergency and is now in a nursing home until her son can care for her again. “She is not happy,” says Maria.
Maria says she would return to the U.K. at a moment’s notice as a visitor again, but “I can’t find out whether they will actually let me in until I land because they won’t let you know ahead of time. … (To go) is a gamble.”
While she still hopes to get a visa, she plans in the meantime to rent an apartment in the Mooney’s Bay area.
She is now staying with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchild at their Ottawa home.
If her appeal isn’t heard or it’s rejected, David says he will eventually return to Ottawa.
“I will take care of mother while fulfilling my county council duties and hope someone sees sense. We have lived in Ottawa for 35 years and both love the city so coming home will not be a major hardship.”
Despite their misgivings about British immigration, they have warm feelings for Queen Elizabeth. Maria wrote Buckingham Palace on a whim last month, hoping the monarch might be able to help. She can’t, but Buckingham Palace replied to her nonetheless.
“The Queen has asked me to thank you for your letter … from which Her Majesty has taken careful note of the views you express regarding your experience with the UK Border Agency,” wrote the Queen’s deputy correspondence co-ordinator, Jennie Vine.
“While the feelings that prompted you to write as you did are understood, I should tell you, however, that this is not a matter in which The Queen would personally intervene. Nevertheless … I have been … instructed to send your letter to the Secretary of State in charge of this matter so that your approach to The Queen and the points you raise may be considered.
“Her Majesty was sorry to learn of your mother-in-law’s medical diagnosis and wishes me to convey to you and your husband, David, her warm good wishes at this time.”