‘We’ve been forgotten’: Mother and daughter born in UK unable to travel due to Home Office delay

A woman and her nine-year-old daughter, who has lived in the UK her entire life, are unable to leave the country due to a Home Office delay.

Angelique Santos, 34, said she and family “feel they have been forgotten” after waiting eight months for a decision on their EU settlement application.

The delay has left them unable to travel to Portugal for medical treatment for her daughter, Jina, and unable to visit family abroad.

Ms Santos, who has lived in Britain for 11 years and works in a care home in London, applied to the settlement scheme for herself and Jina in June 202 on the basis of her relationship with her Portugese partner, whom she has been with since 2020.

The Home Office refused the application in September 2021, saying Ms Santos had failed to provide sufficient evidence of her relationship with her partner.

That same month, she submitted an administrative review to challenge the refusal, along with additional documents to prove the relationship – but she is yet to receive a response.

“It’s very frustrating. I don’t know when they will give the decision. I want to visit my family in the Philippines. My brother is going to have an operation soon and I want to see him before he has it,” Ms Santos said.

“My daughter doesn’t understand why she can’t travel. She’s sad. We can’t travel as a family. She says she’s British. She only speaks English, no other language.”

Jina suffers from hypopigmentation and eczema, which her mother says is worsening. They cannot get an appointment at an NHS hospital until December 2022, but they have managed to secure an appointment at a hospital in Portugal for 7 July.

However, Ms Santos fears they won’t be able to attend due to the Home Office delay.

The Battersea resident added: “It feels like we’ve been forgotten. I know there is a crisis in Ukraine, but they can’t just drop everything else. Covid was their excuse, now it’s because of Ukraine. It’s just too much for us.

“I do a very stressful job caring for elderly people, and I have this on top of that, as well as a difficult financial situation. We don’t deserve this kind of treatment from the Home Office.”

It comes amid mounting concern about continuing EU settlement delays.

Campaigners say the delays are having “serious consequences” for families, with jobs being threatened, housing being more difficult to secure and travel becoming more fraught with difficulties as individuals can’t prove their status.

The latest government figures show that 245,700 applications were pending as of 31 May 2022. Some of these will have been submitted after the deadline as the Home Office has continued to allow people to apply. More than 6.6 million applications have been submitted overall since the scheme opened in March 2019.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The EU settlement scheme has been an overwhelming success, with more than 5.8 million grants of status made. We are currently dealing with the unprecedented demand from EU settlement applications and are working to process applications as quickly as possible”.