Forced out of Scotland, blameless gran who has lived here for 30 years
SHE has lived in Scotland for almost 30 years, has a Scottish mother and is married to a Scot.
But Crystal MacIver faces being deported to the United States because of a paperwork oversight when she was a teenager.
Despite having a National Insurance number and three grown-up children living and working in Scotland, the Home Office wants to remove the 45- year- old grandmother.
Crystal was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, but came to live in Ayrshire when her mother, Margaret Sagan, came home in 1985 after getting divorced from her US serviceman husband.
She went to Ardrossan High School then earned an HND in hospitality management. In the 29 years she has lived in Scotland, Mrs MacIver has had several jobs, married twice and had three children.
She now looks after her grandson, Christopher James, 18 months, while her daughter and son-in-law go out to work.
It appears Mrs MacIver’s mother did not apply for a British passport when they arrived in the UK and Mrs MacIver has simply renewed her US passport ever since.
She now faces deportation after deciding in 2011 to get a UK passport. Mrs MacIver, from Stevenston in Ayrshire, first had to prove that her mother was British.
Having done t hat, offi cials demanded evidence of her right to stay in the country in the form of an immigration document.
A shocked Mrs MacIver says that is impossible as she arrived in the country as a 14-year-old and has no idea whether any such document ever existed. The Home Office claims her inability to produce the documents shows lack of regard for the laws of the country and calls into question her good character.
She must produce the documents by June 8 or her bid to stay in the UK will be refused, resulting in deportation. Mrs MacIver, whose husband Graham works offshore as a pipe fitter, said: ‘Not in my wildest dreams did I think this was going to happen.
‘I’m more Scottish than I am American. I just can’t believe it.
‘I’m going to have to leave my family and my friends and go somewhere I don’t know anybody. And I’ve got my grandson.’
She added: ‘It’s not just me it’s going to affect, it’s going to affect my daughter as well. She does 12hour night shifts in a care home. She’s going to have to quit her job.
‘I’m in shock. I’ve got no one in the States. My dad’s dead, I have nowhere to go to. I will literally be on the streets. I will have nowhere to stay. I can’t even drive.’
Mrs MacIver’s son Christopher, 26, has now started an online petition calling on the authorities to keep his mother in the UK. It has gained more than 3,500 signatures in just five days.
He wrote on the Change. org website: ‘My mother raised me and my sister as a single mother and has done an excellent job.
‘I am trying but I feel powerless to help my mother who has loved and supported me all my life.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘It is up to the individual applying for citizenship to provide the required evidence to support their application.
‘Mrs MacIver has failed to provide the necessary documentation to support her claim for citizenship.’