Home secretary Amber Rudd has been urged to step into a visa wrangle before a mum-to-be is judged too heavily pregnant to fly to her new home in Fife.
Robert Rintoul’s Indian wife Alexandria is facing a second setback in her bid to be allowed to join him in the UK.
Her first visa application was rejected as her high level English language qualification, sufficient for study at the country’s top universities, was not that specified by UK Visas and Immigration.
Now the couple have been denied the prompt response they expected to her second application, submitted under the 30-day priority service, and she will soon be too heavily pregnant to fly from India.
MP Stephen Gethins has urged Ms Rudd to sort out what he described as a ridiculous situation.
He said: “The UK Government is simply playing with people’s lives and emotions and their lack of action on this is horrendous.
“They need to realise they are dealing with real people whose lives, employment and future are being affected.
“I have now written three letters to the Home Secretary and my office has made repeated calls to UK Visas and Immigration but they are simply not listening, it is ridiculous.
“I have serious questions to raise about how this situation has been dealt with, but my first priority is reuniting the family and ensuring the baby arrives safely.”
Correspondence from the UKVI’s director Simon Hayes stated that musician Alexandria, 22, had applied under the ordinary process, which could take up to 12 weeks, despite her having a receipt for the faster service.
Engineer Robert, 33, of St Andrews, said Alexandria, whose due date is May 2, will have to travel in the next week or so, depending on airlines’ rules about travel in the latter stages of pregnancy.
He said: “She doesn’t even know where she is having the baby.
“She should be here worrying about nothing more than picking curtains for our new house, not worrying about where she is having our child.
“This should be a happy time for us, but it’s turned into a nightmare, and all because of a higher level language test.”
UKVI was unable to comment on the case on Wednesday.
A letter from Mr Hayes to Mr Gethins last week attempted to assure the couple that it was “actively considering Mrs Rintoul’s application and they will be notified of the decision at the earliest opportunity.”
