A campaign has started to reunite a Russia woman with her daughter and husband in the UK after she was twice denied a visitor’s UK visa.
The Home Office said that Eugenia Tait’s application to join her husband Charles and five-year-old daughter Angela in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, was turned down because she did not show she intended to leave at the end of the term of the visa. It said that she had visited the UK five times since December 2012 and stayed for 323 days in total. The Home Office told the East Anglian Daily Times that visitor’s visas should not be used as an alternative to other types of visa.
Mrs Tait will be unable to apply for a spouse visa until her husband has been in his teaching job for six months, so it could be the summer before the family are reunited.
Their MP, Therese Coffey said she had contacted both the family and the Home Office and was confident that the case would “be resolved soon”.
She added: “The rules brought in by this Government are both firm and fair in that a husband or wife has to show they can support their partner without recourse to benefits and taxpayer funds. That is demonstrated either by being in work for six months with a wage over £18,600 or by having a capital sum of £62,500.”
Around 400 people have now signed an online petition to supporting Mrs Tait’s efforts to return to the UK.