For years, John Stephen and his wife Joy travelled from their home in Italy to see his parents in Aberdeen.
James and Frances Stephen, aged 95 and 90 respectively, don’t have any other close relatives left and the regular trips became a lifeline – especially at Christmas.
Now, James has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and every moment spent together is even more precious.
John is an astrophysicist who lives in the Italian city of Imola.
The 63-year-old had to go almost two years without seeing his mum and dad due to the pandemic, managing to fly over in September for the first time since Christmas 2019.
Home Office visitor visa decision puts a dampener on Christmas
He had been looking forward to spending the festive period with his parents and wife Joy John-Omoruyi, who he married in 2014.
But “cruel” Home Office rules mean he will be making the journey alone.
The UK Government has denied Joy’s visitor visa application – meaning she will have to stay 1,500 miles away in Italy.
Officials insist that the matter was given “full consideration”, accusing the couple of providing “insufficient information”.
But John told us the situation had left him “furious” as he condemned the Home Office’s inflexible approach towards his 39-year-old spouse.
‘I thought it would be a formality…’
John grew up in Aberdeen, where his dad was a maths teacher at Cults Academy.
He graduated from Aberdeen University in 1979, and completed his masters degree in theoretical astronomy at Sussex the next year.
In 1985 he went to Italy to start work on his post-doc.
He is now a senior researcher in astrophysics and part of the INAF government research lab.
As a dual British and Italian citizen, the scientist has no problems travelling between Scotland and his adopted homeland.
Joy has fallen victim to more stringent rules put in place as a result of Brexit.
John said: “Before Covid, we were going back roughly twice a year.
“Under EU rules, my wife was allowed freedom of movement, but with Brexit we now need a visa.
“I filled out the application thinking it would be a formality… We had been going back and forward anyway.”
But John was stunned when the form was rejected – and they were told there would be no review of the decision.
He added: “It was a slap in the face.”
Home Office visitor visa decision branded ‘absolute madness’
Although John would be paying for the trip as Joy’s “sponsor”, Home Office officials said there wasn’t enough information on her “personal and economic situation”.
The scientist said: “Joy is unemployed because she doesn’t need to work, she’s a housewife.
“Everything that is in my name is 50% hers, but yet they say they ‘aren’t satisfied she plans a short visit’.
“Why would she do that? We have got a 270 square metre house looking over the hills of Santerno. It’s absolute madness.”
“It’s not about the money, but we already spent a thousand Euros on the application and another thousand on a weekend in Rome to get her fingerprints taken…
“Yet they say she hasn’t got enough to stay in the UK for three weeks.”
John has now begrudgingly resigned himself to visiting alone.
He feels the “worst thing” is the inability to appeal the harsh ruling.
Spending Christmas apart will be hard
The north-east native added: “It’s important for me to see my parents, I have no brothers and sisters and my parents’ siblings are dead.
“My wife knows them well, they all get on nicely.
“It is natural to spend that day together, but we can’t appeal, we can’t say anything.
“They won’t answer if you phone them and say ‘I want to talk about this’.
There’s a saying in Italy that it’s ‘like a rubber wall’, you can press against it but you just get bounced back.
It will be the first Christmas we have not been together for quite some time. It’s a terrible system.”
“I’m furious, I’m really furious.
“Even lying in bed I think about it, I’m not sleeping that well.
“My dad got quite emotional last time I left, saying he might never see me again, now it feels like he might not get the chance to see Joy again.”
Decisions ‘never taken lightly’
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The decision to refuse entry to the UK is never taken lightly and only after full consideration of all the information presented to the Home Office at the time.
“We have clearly set out our reasons for not granting a visa in this case.
“Individuals must provide adequate information to ensure we are satisfied they meet the requirements of the immigration rules.
“Any future visa application would be considered on its individual merits.”
The rejection letter, seen by Aberdeen Journals, lists the reasons for the knockback.
Among them are that Joy “did not do enough to demonstrate her personal circumstances”.
It also says she did not supply enough information to show her own funds and that there wasn’t enough detail on John’s finances.
The letter concludes: “In relation to this decision, there is no right of appeal or right to administrative review.”
Aberdeen MP to battle decision
Aberdeen South MP Stephen Flynn says the approach taken by the Home Office creates a “hostile environment”.
He said: “Sadly cases like Mr Buchan’s are all too familiar, with the Home Office refusing to revisit such applications even when any oversights could be quickly resolved.
Clearly John’s wife has a history of visiting Scotland.
This type of decision is absolutely devastating for people as they try to come together over Christmas.”
“I’m working with the family to see if we can get the decision changed.
“But the reality is the Home Office will force the entire process to be restarted which is a waste of everyone’s time and money.
“I hope common sense can prevail but until the Tories drop their hostile environment, and accept the damage being caused by Brexit, policy decisions like these will happen time and again.”
In the year between September 2020 and 2021, 428,636 people applied for visitor visas.
Of those, 260,275 were granted.
