Immigration delays making people ‘suicidal’ as Home Office holds passports for years

'My wife’s father was on his death bed and we couldn't make plans to visit. He would always call and ask when we were coming... But he never got to meet his granddaughter'

A man who has lived in the UK for more than a decade says he has been made to feel “suicidal” after waiting for more than two years for the Home Office to process his settlement application.

Mushtaque Shah and his wife Sehar, both Pakistani nationals who have lived in the UK for 12 years and have a British-born daughter, applied for indefinite leave to remain in May 2016. They are still waiting for a decision from the Home Office 28 months later.

The family, who live in Newcastle, have been unable to visit terminally ill relatives before they died as the Home Office is holding onto their passports, meaning their three-year-old was never able to meet her grandfather.

(Mushtaque Shah)

They are one of thousands of households impacted by increasing delays in the Home Office’s processing of settlement applications.

New figures obtained by The Independent show the proportion of UK settlement applications forced to wait longer than six months has more than doubled in three years, from 6 per cent – or 5,627 – to 11 per cent, or 8,210.

Mr Shah, 37, told The Independent: “Last year, my wife’s father was on his death bed, and we couldn’t make plans to visit. My father-in-law used to call and he ask when we were coming.

“He would say: ‘I’m waiting for my granddaughter to pick her up and cuddle her.’ My wife would say next week, next week. But he never got to meet her.

“My wife wouldn’t eat for days; she was crying all the time. Sometimes she would say: ‘I don’t want our visas – let’s just get our passports back and leave this country.’ But we’ve paid our taxes and been here for 10 years.”

Mr Shah, who owns a small company, said that as well as being unable to see his wife’s father on his deathbed, he was unable to see his uncle when he got ill.

“He raised me until the age of 18; he was like a dad to me. I called the Home Office every month, but the only answer I’d get is that it’s ‘in progress’. He died and I couldn’t see him. I was suicidal in that week,” he said.

In June 2018, more than two years after the family submitted their application, they received a letter from the Home Office stating that their case was taking longer than usual because it was “complex”.

Mr Shah said his family’s life was “on hold”.

“I have been legal and respectful to the law. The Home Office is clearly not upholding my legal rights. They are not making any decision, which is even more frustrating than them rejecting my visa,” he said.

“If there is a clear evidence against me getting a visa – which I don’t believe there is, but if there is – then they should tell me. My business is on hold, my family life is on hold. It’s not just me – my daughter was unable to meet her grandparents.

“The most frustrating thing is waiting, waiting and endless waiting.”

A Home Office spokesperson told The Independent the case had been extended due to a current review on cases linked to Tier 1 applications, and said the couple could re-obtain their passports if they chose to withdraw their visa application.

The spokesperson added: “Due to the complex nature of certain applications submitted to the Home Office and the need to rigorously check information submitted by applicants, there are occasionally delays in the processing of applications. We attempt to keep these at a minimum.”