A mix-up over an immigration law, made by the Home Office, has finally been set right, reuniting a young family.
Shelley Hornby-Baaouani, 28, met her Tunisian husband Walid, 26, while she was holidaying in his native country back in 2011. The pair kept their relationship going over the coming years, travelling between the UK and Tunisia to visit each other. Shelley also visited Norway when Walid was working there.
However, after the pair got married and found out Shelley was expecting their first child, they decided to set up more definite roots in the UK. The couple put an application through to the British Home Office for Shelley to sponsor Walid as her spouse, which should have allowed him to move to the UK in time to be with his wife and son.
But despite the fact that Shelley met the new £18,600 income threshold, the application was delayed, meaning that Walid was kept away from his son for the first five months of his life.
Shelley contacted the Bedford Times and Citizen, as well as a lawyer, for help with their situation. She told the paper: “If my husband hadn’t been able to come here I would have been forced to give up my £20,000 a year job and go part time, if that had even been an option. I would have had to claim benefits.
“There has been a lot going on with Facebook, and three other girls who are in the same situation as us got the same letter. It didn’t say congratulations or anything like that - all it said was that they have withdrawn the original decision.”
A Home Office spokesman refused to comment on individual cases, but stated that the income threshold has been “calculated as the level at which a couple generally ceases to be able to access income related benefits”.