A SERIES of bureaucratic blunders by the Home Office means the Leader photographer Craig Colville could be forced to leave the UK if he wants to continue to live with his wife.
This is despite the fact he has a Welsh mother and English father, he was born and went to school in St Asaph, raised near Talacre and now lives in Chester.
The 31-year-old met his now wife Crystal, a Canadian citizen, in 2006 when they were both working on a cruise ship.
After a long distance relationship she moved to the UK on a Youth Mobility Visa in October 2010 and the pair were married at a ceremony in Llangollen last July.
Once they became husband and wife, Crystal, 29, applied to the Home Office for “an extension of stay as the husband, wife, civil partner or unmarried/same-sex partner of a permanent resident”.
But Home Secretary Theresa May refused the application, saying Crystal could not stay in the UK because Craig “does not hold settled status, is not a British citizen and is not a person with refugee leave/humanitarian protection”.
“My wife and I are extremely upset by how poorly the Home Office has treated our case,” said Craig, a former Ysgol Glan Clwyd student.
“It should have been very straightforward as I am a British citizen.”
Craig and Crystal were told if they were not happy with the decision the only thing they could do was to lodge an official appeal.
But in yet another blunder by the UK Border Agency (UKBA), a section of the Home Office, they have now been told their application for appeal has been refused because it was not in on time.
The couple were told in their original refusal letter, sent on February 4, they had until February 18 (10 working days) to appeal.
But on March 7 they received a letter saying their notice of appeal had been refused.
Someone at the UKBA had confused 10 days with 10 working days and the application should have been received by February 14.
“When we called to query this we were told the only thing we could do was to lodge an official appeal against the decision not to allow us to appeal,” said Craig.
“It’s getting beyond a joke now, I dread to think how much this is going to cost the tax payer to sort out.”
Crystal has been told if her appeal is unsuccessful she “must leave the United Kingdom as soon as possible” when her present visa runs out.
The letter from the UKBA adds: “If you do not leave the United Kingdom voluntarily, you will be removed to Canada.”
Craig added: “I do not have the right to live or work in Canada and my worst fear is that we would be separated again, ruining everything we have worked towards.”
Ironically Craig’s identical twin brother Scott, also born in St Asaph, has not been told by Britain’s border guards that he is not a British citizen.
Equally ironic is that Crystal’s grandparents were both a Geordie and a Scot. If she had foreseen the current Home Office blunders, Crystal could have qualified for full British citizenship under an ancestry visa.
Craig has contacted Chester MP Stephen Mosley about the matter. A spokesman for his office said Mr Mosley was supporting the couple and had contacted the UKBA, but that he could not comment further while the issue was ongoing.
At the time of going to Press Craig and Crystal received a further letter from the Home Office which underlined the fact that the couple would have to continue their life outside the UK.
A UKBA spokesman said: “We are writing to Ms Levy [Crystal] this week regarding her application.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further until she has received the latest correspondence.”