Scottish family upset that their mum with no right to stay in the UK wasn’t just allowed to enter the UK. I’m not sure what they expected?? That you can just marry a Brit, have kids and get instant access to the UK without a passport or even a visa??
pokemon-player on
I find these sorts of posts hard if I’m honest.
Do I think the UK has a problem with immigration? Yes I do. Would I be doing exactly the same as these guys if it meant a better future for my kids. Yes I would.
clydewoodforest on
>He said: “I just don’t understand it. We paid for the three seats, she went to the airport, and she was told that she can’t get on the flight because she didn’t have a visa.
They must be very unworldly not to know this.
>Mr Hardie also criticised the cost of the UK government flights out of Lebanon, which were £350 per person.
I know of someone who paid $2500 for a one-way flight out of Lebanon to Morocco recently. I’m sure the family did look at commercial options and saw the prices so this particular complaint seems bizarre.
silentv0ices on
Complaining about the cost of the flight is a bit of a cheek why should tax payers pick up the bill for him living in Lebanon and not paying UK tax on his earnings. I’m sure if she had applied for a visa she would have been granted one that’s on her.
ShouldBeSomePlace on
“Rebecca organised everything and she may have been told before she left the house (that Ms McCulloch would be unable to board the flight), but she thought she would just go and try because she wanted to go with the kids, but she was told categorically, no.”
Looks like they have never lived together as a family in Scotland. You’d think the parents would’ve made doubly sure everything was in place to enter the country before they left home.
Disastrous_Fruit1525 on
I get the impression that he met his wife while working in Lebanon, and has been living there ever since. Now suddenly he remembers he is Scottish because he needs something from the UK, he has had 20 years to sort out a British passport for his wife.
Mountainenthusiast2 on
So they’ve been living in Lebanon since 2002 and the wife has no UK passport or Visa? But because they’ve been married for 20 years he feels she should be considered one even though the rules for applying for British Citizen through marriage is that you have lived in the UK 3 years before applying and have settled status.
Sorry if this comes across as insenitive and I can’t imagine what a horrible situation it is for all of them and the kids being seperated from their Mum in all this but they must have known deep down there would be issues?
mitchanium on
There’s a pretty cold theme in this post, particularly the boats comments.
War sucks, always, but it brings out the darker side of Brits it seems.
I get the points of this article, but I’d be devastated if this was my mum.
Pretty disappointing tbh
VictoriouslyAviation on
Lots to unpick from this. In terms of morality it seems harsh to separate a family despite some having legal status and others not.
There is a certain element of cake and eat it as well. The father of the family is clearly an expat and knowing a little about the ‘Middle Eastern dollar’ he is likely very well recompensed for his job; which admittedly requires a level of courage uncommon amongst people.
This has been simmering for over a year now – more than enough time to arrange a Visa. FCO advice has never, to my knowledge, given a green rating to Lebanon so to reside there is to understand the risk. It’s difficult to find a great degree of sympathy when bullets start flying around and suddenly people are angry they cannot leave the country.
Objectively these people have taken a high risk high reward strategy of living somewhere below the normally accepted safety threshold in order to enjoy a standard of living higher than average were they to reside in the UK and now appear to be upset that they aren’t being availed of the entire horsepower of the British state to bail them out.
I think, because I am a moral human being she probably should have been evacuated with her children despite lack of entitlement but yep – pay the £350 for each of you and smile broadly about it. They can probably afford it.
A_Bannister on
What are these comments, God forbid someone try to flee to their home country from a war zone, and take the mother of their kids back with them. Obviously they’re at least going to try.
NowThatHappened on
Its shocking to me that these people, trying to do it right with a fairly valid reason are turned away, and yet so far this year 23,000 have arrived by boats without passports or visas. Pick one or the other, allow people to come here, or don’t, but don’t deny one and allow the other. In my opinion, that I’ve no right to anymore.
Jeffuk88 on
Yes, my Canadian wife also can’t join me in England because I don’t make enough money…. Let’s not pretend this is anything new. If the UK wants to bring people out of a war zone they’ll offer visas. I’m sure they’re focusing on citizens first
sjw_7 on
I can understand their frustration as I would want to do everything to make sure my family was safe given the situation over there. I was ready to think the UK was being very harsh and its unfair to leave her behind but then I read the article.
The flights are for British nationals only and she is not a British national. It seems she has never lived in the UK so doesn’t qualify for citizenship here. She does have a connection to the UK through her children who are British nationals through birth but thats all it is, a connection and doesn’t give her any rights.
When they booked the flights they knew she wasn’t eligible and couldn’t book her on it but quite understandably decided to take a chance. They were told no as they would have expected and are now trying to play the sympathy card. There are several thousand that need to be evacuated so I can only assume that the flights are full so she would have been taking a seat away from someone who was actually entitled to it.
One thing that strikes me as odd is that the bombing has been going on for a week now. The dad is in Iraq and says he will be flying back later in October. It all seems rather leisurely as if I were in his position I would be trying to get back as soon as I could. Perhaps there is a good reason for this but it does seem strange.
However I do hope she gets to safety and is reunited with her family soon.
test_test_1_2_3 on
This is just stupidity, why would they think that normal rules for right of entry wouldn’t apply?
Why had they not applied for her to get a visa back when Hezbollah started launching rockets hard on 8th October?
If they’ve been married for 20 years then that just makes them look even more entitled when they’ve done nothing to secure her a visa or a UK passport.
She isn’t Scottish, has she even been to Scotland? Has this guy just remembered he’s Scottish now that he needs to flee Lebanon? If they’ve been in Lebanon since 2002 then they’ve literally been through this before so makes it impossible to be sympathetic.
14 Comments
Scottish family upset that their mum with no right to stay in the UK wasn’t just allowed to enter the UK. I’m not sure what they expected?? That you can just marry a Brit, have kids and get instant access to the UK without a passport or even a visa??
I find these sorts of posts hard if I’m honest.
Do I think the UK has a problem with immigration? Yes I do. Would I be doing exactly the same as these guys if it meant a better future for my kids. Yes I would.
>He said: “I just don’t understand it. We paid for the three seats, she went to the airport, and she was told that she can’t get on the flight because she didn’t have a visa.
They must be very unworldly not to know this.
>Mr Hardie also criticised the cost of the UK government flights out of Lebanon, which were £350 per person.
I know of someone who paid $2500 for a one-way flight out of Lebanon to Morocco recently. I’m sure the family did look at commercial options and saw the prices so this particular complaint seems bizarre.
Complaining about the cost of the flight is a bit of a cheek why should tax payers pick up the bill for him living in Lebanon and not paying UK tax on his earnings. I’m sure if she had applied for a visa she would have been granted one that’s on her.
“Rebecca organised everything and she may have been told before she left the house (that Ms McCulloch would be unable to board the flight), but she thought she would just go and try because she wanted to go with the kids, but she was told categorically, no.”
Looks like they have never lived together as a family in Scotland. You’d think the parents would’ve made doubly sure everything was in place to enter the country before they left home.
I get the impression that he met his wife while working in Lebanon, and has been living there ever since. Now suddenly he remembers he is Scottish because he needs something from the UK, he has had 20 years to sort out a British passport for his wife.
So they’ve been living in Lebanon since 2002 and the wife has no UK passport or Visa? But because they’ve been married for 20 years he feels she should be considered one even though the rules for applying for British Citizen through marriage is that you have lived in the UK 3 years before applying and have settled status.
Sorry if this comes across as insenitive and I can’t imagine what a horrible situation it is for all of them and the kids being seperated from their Mum in all this but they must have known deep down there would be issues?
There’s a pretty cold theme in this post, particularly the boats comments.
War sucks, always, but it brings out the darker side of Brits it seems.
I get the points of this article, but I’d be devastated if this was my mum.
Pretty disappointing tbh
Lots to unpick from this. In terms of morality it seems harsh to separate a family despite some having legal status and others not.
There is a certain element of cake and eat it as well. The father of the family is clearly an expat and knowing a little about the ‘Middle Eastern dollar’ he is likely very well recompensed for his job; which admittedly requires a level of courage uncommon amongst people.
This has been simmering for over a year now – more than enough time to arrange a Visa. FCO advice has never, to my knowledge, given a green rating to Lebanon so to reside there is to understand the risk. It’s difficult to find a great degree of sympathy when bullets start flying around and suddenly people are angry they cannot leave the country.
Objectively these people have taken a high risk high reward strategy of living somewhere below the normally accepted safety threshold in order to enjoy a standard of living higher than average were they to reside in the UK and now appear to be upset that they aren’t being availed of the entire horsepower of the British state to bail them out.
I think, because I am a moral human being she probably should have been evacuated with her children despite lack of entitlement but yep – pay the £350 for each of you and smile broadly about it. They can probably afford it.
What are these comments, God forbid someone try to flee to their home country from a war zone, and take the mother of their kids back with them. Obviously they’re at least going to try.
Its shocking to me that these people, trying to do it right with a fairly valid reason are turned away, and yet so far this year 23,000 have arrived by boats without passports or visas. Pick one or the other, allow people to come here, or don’t, but don’t deny one and allow the other. In my opinion, that I’ve no right to anymore.
Yes, my Canadian wife also can’t join me in England because I don’t make enough money…. Let’s not pretend this is anything new. If the UK wants to bring people out of a war zone they’ll offer visas. I’m sure they’re focusing on citizens first
I can understand their frustration as I would want to do everything to make sure my family was safe given the situation over there. I was ready to think the UK was being very harsh and its unfair to leave her behind but then I read the article.
The flights are for British nationals only and she is not a British national. It seems she has never lived in the UK so doesn’t qualify for citizenship here. She does have a connection to the UK through her children who are British nationals through birth but thats all it is, a connection and doesn’t give her any rights.
When they booked the flights they knew she wasn’t eligible and couldn’t book her on it but quite understandably decided to take a chance. They were told no as they would have expected and are now trying to play the sympathy card. There are several thousand that need to be evacuated so I can only assume that the flights are full so she would have been taking a seat away from someone who was actually entitled to it.
One thing that strikes me as odd is that the bombing has been going on for a week now. The dad is in Iraq and says he will be flying back later in October. It all seems rather leisurely as if I were in his position I would be trying to get back as soon as I could. Perhaps there is a good reason for this but it does seem strange.
However I do hope she gets to safety and is reunited with her family soon.
This is just stupidity, why would they think that normal rules for right of entry wouldn’t apply?
Why had they not applied for her to get a visa back when Hezbollah started launching rockets hard on 8th October?
If they’ve been married for 20 years then that just makes them look even more entitled when they’ve done nothing to secure her a visa or a UK passport.
She isn’t Scottish, has she even been to Scotland? Has this guy just remembered he’s Scottish now that he needs to flee Lebanon? If they’ve been in Lebanon since 2002 then they’ve literally been through this before so makes it impossible to be sympathetic.