US WOMAN CAN STAY IN UK
AN AMERICAN woman has won her fight to stay in the UK – after being at risk of deportation when her visa was not renewed on time.
Deborah Perry and British husband Ian, who have been married for around 20 years, retired to the Staffordshire Moorlands around twoand-a-half years ago after moving from Switzerland.
She was granted a five-year Family Settlement Visa before settling down in Warslow – but did not realise it had to be renewed after two-and-a-half years.
Deborah, with the support of the Peak District village who signed a petition calling for her to stay, appealed to the Home Office for her visa to be renewed. And now, just hours after the Post & Times contacted the Home Office the a statement on her case, Deborah has been granted a reprieve.
Speaking after receiving the news, Deborah was grateful to the Warslow community. She said: “I just want to say thank you for all the support, all the letters and the petition.
“We are so grateful to the village. It has been unbelievable. We have had a few locals from the pub come over to the house to sign the petition. The support really has been amazing.”
It was only when Deborah checked her passport to prepare for a trip to visit family in the United States earlier this month she noticed the visa was 26 days out of date.
The couple took dozens of pages of documents to get the permit renewed on Friday, August 16 – but were not successful and faced a long and expensive appeals process to allow her to stay in Britain.
Dozens of villagers in Warslow and surrounding areas signed a petition saying Deborah was an asset to their community and calling on the Home Office to ‘let her stay’ – with the Perry family also contacting Moorlands MP Karen Bradley.
Deborah said: “What we did not realise was with the five year residency, we had to renew it after two-and-ahalf years.
“We have not travelled out of the country since 2017 so that little laminated card sat in my drawer with my U.S. passport.
“It wasn’t that I missed the deadline – we did not know I had a deadline. I had not had any documents.”
Under previous legislation there was a 28day grace period but this was halved several years ago – meaning Deborah was 12 days beyond it when she realised.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Following a review of this case, we contacted Mrs Perry on Thursday, August 29 to inform her that her application for leave will be granted.”