Who answered us?
Jack Straw MP - Minister of Justice
the only decent member of the Labour government who listened and answered us.

Who Ignored Us?
Gordon Brown PM
Jacqui Smith MP - Home Office
Liam Byrne MP - Home Office
Ignored numerous faxes, letters and emails detailing the injustice done to us.

Apology from United Kingdom Border Agency ~ 1st august 2008

Scotland and Northern Ireland Region
Festival Court 3
200 Brand Street
Glasgow G51 1DH
Tel +44 (0)141 555 1504      Fax +44 (0)141 555 1561

Our ref: B1038***         30 July 2008

Dear Mr Mackins,

Thank you for your letter of 2 July 2008 addressed to Mr Jack Straw, Minister of Justice, which has been passed to me to reply.

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the difficult position in which you and your wife appear to have been placed by the decisions made, within the law as it stands, by this department. It is our normal practice, where possible to advise those who are issued with a probationary Spouse visa, that at the end of the 24 month period, they wiil need to produce evidence of co-habitation. Unfortunately this did not happen in your case, for which I apologise.

In addition I would like to acknowledge, it might have been sensible to have considered granting your wife a further period of limited leave, as you suggest, to allow you time to collect suitable evidence of your ongoing marriage.

I note that since writing to Mr Straw your wife has withdrawn her appeal against the decision to refuse her settlement in the United Kingdom. I understand this is because she had to urgently leave the country.
If she is currently out of the country she should seek Entry Clearance before returning. I can give no guarantees as to any decisions made by the Entry Clearance Officer on such a matter, but I have undertaken to note our systems that a sympathetic view should be taken regarding the previous refusal and withdrawn appeal.

If your wife remains in the United Kingdom a further application for Settlement would receive careful consideration particularly bearing in mind recent Case Law relating to the application of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
May I conclude by apologising for what appears to have been an inflexible and insensitive application of the Immigration Rules in your wife's case and I hope that we can now bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion.

Yours sincerely,

Pam Moore

Senior Caseworker

Scotland and Northern Ireland Region, United Kingdom Border Agency