Two families who waited months for post-Brexit UK visas have been given the paperwork – thanks to the Sunday Mail.
Last month, we highlighted the cases of the Abbott and Lyon families who wanted to relocate to Aberdeen from Europe.
Jonathan Abbott, 42, and Paul Lyon, 41, worked in the oil and gas sector but wanted to bring their partners and children home to the UK.
But both – who were living in Italy and Romania – revealed they had endured months of waiting for family permits in a process that should have taken less than 12 weeks.
Within days of revealing their ordeal, the Home Office — headed up by Priti Patel — acted on the delays and approved their paperwork.
Jonathan had already moved to Aberdeen to start a job over summer after leaving Italian wife Erika, 43, near Verona with their three children.
Erika said: “Within days of the Sunday Mail story, our visas finally arrived. We had got so desperate, my daughter wrote to the Queen to see if she could do anything in September. We got a reply to say there was nothing they could do.
“We believe it was because of the Sunday Mail story that our visas finally arrived.”
They had originally applied for a permit in July.
The Lyons had spent even longer waiting for the visas.
Geophysicist Paul, originally from the Wirral, said he had been forced to move into a one-bed flat in Romania with his wife and two children while he waited for his UK visa.
But Paul, married to Chilean Elizabeth, has since been given the green light to move home with his family.
He said: “The articles were a big part of getting our visa.”
The Home Office said the pandemic had led to “delays to visa applications”.
