A DECISION to relax visa regulations for students at four universities in southern England has been attacked after a Scottish MP called on the Home Office to review the case of a Canadian family living in the Highlands who are battling deportation.
In a letter to immigration minister Robert Goodwill, SNP MP Drew Hendry says the two-year pilot is “an opportunity for a belated change of approach” after the Home Office previously insisted immigration rules must be applied equally across the UK.
Hendry, the SNP member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, has been fighting the case of Jason and Christy Zielsdorf and their five children. The family is being forced to leave Scotland despite having invested almost £250,000 in a thriving rural business which is a community lifeline in the village of Laggan, in the central Highlands.
He said: “For over a year the Home Office has told me, the Zielsdorf family and the community of Laggan that there can be no flexibility in the UK immigration system and no part of the UK can have special treatment, this week’s announcement now shows that special cases can be considered and this must be applied here as well.”
“It is clear to me that if the Home Office can offer special category status to elite universities it can offer flexibility to other areas like the Highlands.
“It is now time for the UK Government to change approach and help bring investment to the Highlands by rewarding applicants like the Zielsdorf family who choose to do business here and bring much-needed jobs and investment to villages like Laggan.”
The family own and operate the Laggan Stores Coffee Bothy and Wayfarer’s Rest, and Hendry told The National they provided a vital service: “It would be a 20-mile hike to buy a bottle of milk if it weren’t for the family’s shop.
Ian Blackford, the MP campaigning for the right of Australian family the Brains to remain in Scotland, added: “The fact that there is a cross-party consensus in Scotland on reintroducing the post study work visa why is the minister ignoring the will of the elected politicians and the Scottish Parliament?
“If it is right for elite universities in England it is right for Scotland where there is a clear demand for a change in policy to reflect our circumstances. In the light of the changes in England the minister should listen to my colleague Drew Hendry and allow the Zielsdorfs to stay.”
The family arrived in Scotland in 2008 under a student visa and switched to a post-study work visa when Jason completed his Master’s Degree at St Andrews University.
He subsequently succeeded in obtaining a three-year entrepreneur visa in 2012 and, after buying the Laggan shop in 2014, applied for an extension last year.
The Home Office rejected it on four out of six requirements, including one which stated they had to employ two full-time staff at the minimum wage or higher, which did not take into account the seasonal nature of work in such a remote part of the Highlands.
Jason has decided they have no option but return to Canada, as they cannot afford further legal challenges and continuing uncertainty.
They have been allocated a caseworker from Home Office voluntary returns team, but his driving licence has been confiscated, leaving the family virtually stranded.
The family have been given an extension to the end of September to enable them to sell their business.
Jason said he did not feel bitter, but added: “Would I trust the Home Office in the future? I would have a hard time saying yes.”
Although their circumstances differ substantially, the Zielsdorfs’ case illustrates the same uncaring and rigorously inflexible Home Office approach previously seen in its dealings with Gregg, Kathryn and Lachlan Brain; Scott, Nicola and Lauryn Johnson; Mary Beard, a US citizen engaged to Scot Martin McGuire, and daughters Molly and Brianna; and Australian citizen Evelyn Phillips, her Scottish husband Chris and their three daughters.
While the first three families are still involved in well-documented battles with UK Visas and Immigration, the Phillips family eventually won their appeal earlier this year, meaning Evelyn would be able to visit her terminally-ill mother in Australia, without the fear that she would not be allowed back into the UK.
Yesterday, Kathryn Brain was still awaiting news of a job that could help her obtain a new visa and Scott John was still wondering how long it would be before his appeal would be heard.
The Home Office said that all visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits.
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