Swindon coffee shop owner faces deportation for not earning enough

By Swindon Link - 27 March 2015

General

A MARRIED couple who own a Swindon coffee shop have had their world ‘torn apart’ after the Home Office gave the female half of the partnership 14 days to leave the country. Now the pair must exploit a globetrotting loophole to return to the UK and rebuild their lives.

Australian Jacky Collyer runs Darkroom Espresso with husband Andy Carter. After meeting in Brighton, the pair married in 2013 and set up the business in Faringdon Road last year.

But a week before opening its doors, Jacky received a letter informing her that she could not stay in the country because she did not earn the Home Office minimum income requirement of £18,600 for a foreign spouse.

The couple duly challenged the ruling but their plea was thrown out, and last week Jacky was told she had 14 days to leave the UK.

Andy, from Purton, explained: “We wanted to do something that had a large community focus, encourage people to walk around the town a bit more so we founded the company. We signed a lease in July 2014 and had invested in a lot of expensive equipment. We opened in September 2014 and a week before that we received notice that Jacky would have to leave unless we appealed.

“We attended an appeal in February and it was the worst experience of our lives, standing in front of a judge and a representative of the Home Office. We were separated and had to try to defend our position in what we were trying to do.

“None of it was taken into account because the only thing they were looking for was any insurmountable obstacle why we wouldn’t be able to move to Australia, which we weren’t able to demonstrate. So a week ago we received a letter saying that the appeal had been dismissed. So Jacky had 14 days from that date to appeal or leave the country.

“We’re trying to put together an appeal letter to buy ourselves time. We don’t think it will make a difference in the long run in terms of our future here, but we want to give ourselves enough time to figure out what we’re going to do with the business and to sort out when we’re going to go.”

The couple received support from Tory North Wilts MP James Gray, who wrote a letter on their behalf ahead of the hearing, but having friends in high places made no difference to the outcome.

Jacky said: “The judge told us it doesn’t prove anything because James Gray is part of the political party that introduced the rule.

“Our world’s been torn apart really. There are 4,000 people on hold right now in this country. All those people will be going through what we are now, either hopefully fighting it, or leaving. Many have kids who are British citizens and the parents are being forced apart – stories like that are pretty heavy. They’re splitting families up.

“The irony is that if the British citizen isn’t the bread winner they’re forced to claim benefits because they kicked out the person who was earning the money.”

The couple now have two long-term options – making a fresh start in Jacky’s native Australia, or exploiting a legal loophole and returning to the UK after spending a few months elsewhere in the European Union.

Jacky said: “There is hope for us to be able to get back into the country. There’s something called the Surinder Singh route. These rules don’t apply to other EU citizens so if Andy was from any other EU country and living here I could come here, work and claim benefits straight away with no questions asked or no income requirement. I have a friend living here from Sweden who is married to an Australian and the rules don’t apply to them.

“If we move to Germany for example, live there for three months and Andy gets a part time job we would be able to move back to the UK under EU law. At that point I could come back in, and even claim benefits. They’re forcing people to leave and jump through hoops but shooting themselves in the foot.

“It’s hugely upsetting – they are applying this financial threshold based on London wages and so many people outside of London don’t earn anywhere near that.

“The government is trying hard to reduce immigration and needs some kind of statistic to say, look we’re doing a good job kicking all the people out, but these people want to contribute to society, they want to integrate and they want to be part of Britain.”

A “Save Darkroom” Facebook campaign page has attracted hundreds of supporters since being set up this week and an e-petition has attracted 1,500 signatures.

Andy said: “We’ve had huge support from customers. People setting up Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, people writing to MPs and the Prime Minister. They’re not under any illusions that they’ll be able to force a change but it’s about making people aware of these situations and how ridiculous it is.”

Source: www.totalnews.co.uk

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