NEW DELHI: A 22-year-old pregnant woman from Meghalaya has been denied visa to live with her Scottish husband in Scotland. The reason cited for the denial is that the woman’s English is too good.
Alexandria Rintoul, who is now stranded in Bengaluru, passed an advanced English exam but the visa granting authorities require a much easier examination for her to qualify.
Her husband Bobby Rintoul (33) told the BBC Scotland news website, “We were told the visa process is difficult so we should hire an immigration lawyer to help us, which we did. They told Alexandria to do the higher test and we submitted all the evidence requested of us. However, we have now received a rejection letter on the basis she has over qualified herself with a more technical test than required.”
The letter says Alexandria should do a lower category test so she can be entitled to be here and that she did the higher one unnecessarily!
Bobby has been forced to fork out for last-minute flights to India to be with his wife on Christmas. “It would have been our first Christmas in our new house and her first in Scotland,” he said. The couple, who met in Dubai four years ago and got married in May, has already been apart for three months. Their baby is due on May 2, their first wedding anniversary.
“You think you’re doing everything by the book by appointing an immigration lawyer just to be knocked back. I can’t think of anything but looking forward to our normal life together once it’s allowed to resume,” Bobby told the website.
Alexandria said, “I’m supposed to be spending money on my baby, my house, my new family and here I am paying bills for this money sucking visa which is refused because they aren’t satisfied that I come from a country that speaks English. We learn in English, fight in English, write and practice law in English.”
“I’ll write a whole book in English just you wait,” she added.
She now faces an agonising 30 working-day wait over Christmas to find out if her reapplication gets the green light. And the saga has cost the couple around £4,000 so far.
Despite completing her test at an approved centre – Edinburgh College’s Granton campus, the Home Office has claimed Alexandria’s application did not meet “specified immigration rules”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Some applicants for visas to settle in the UK need to pass an English language test at an approved centre that is specified in the immigration rules.”
“Mrs Rintoul failed to do this and also failed to submit the necessary supporting evidence for her application. It is open to her to reapply under the priority visa service but it would cost more,” he added.
On the contrary Scotland has a well-earned reputation for providing an incredibly warm and open welcome to everyone who chooses to live, work, study, and visit or invest there.
