British-French Couple Forced to Pay £11,000 to Return to UK after Decades of Tax Contributions due to Brexit Rules
A British man named Stephen Kaye, who has Parkinson's disease, and his French wife, Carmen Delaunay, are unable to return to the UK due to post-Brexit immigration rules.
Despite working and paying taxes in the UK for decades, they have been told they must pay £11,000 to obtain visas.
Kaye spent his entire career as an IT specialist in the UK, while Delaunay worked as an analyst and client retention specialist for Deloitte for over 25 years.
The couple, who now live in France, feel they have been "left stranded" and have had the "door slammed in their faces." In 2015, Kaye and her husband moved to France to care for his elderly father.
Due to new immigration rules implemented after 2021, Kaye's ex-wife Carmen, an EU citizen, was denied entry into the UK because she did not have a continuous five-year residency in Britain before their divorce.
Kaye was shocked and disbelieved that such a rule existed in a "civilized" country like the UK, believing that a British citizen should have the right to marry and live indefinitely with a partner of any nationality in the UK.
A couple, Carmen and Delaunay, married in the UK in 2012, are sharing their story to challenge what they see as the injustice of Brexit.
They moved to France in 2015 to care for Delaunay's ill father and remained there after his death in 2018.
Despite being married to a British spouse, they fear being "landlocked" in France due to Brexit and want the UK government to allow them to return easily.
They argue that they should not be affected by the UK's decision to disallow "staged" marriages, as theirs was not one.
Kaye spent his entire career as an IT specialist in the UK, while Delaunay worked as an analyst and client retention specialist for Deloitte for over 25 years.
The couple, who now live in France, feel they have been "left stranded" and have had the "door slammed in their faces." In 2015, Kaye and her husband moved to France to care for his elderly father.
Due to new immigration rules implemented after 2021, Kaye's ex-wife Carmen, an EU citizen, was denied entry into the UK because she did not have a continuous five-year residency in Britain before their divorce.
Kaye was shocked and disbelieved that such a rule existed in a "civilized" country like the UK, believing that a British citizen should have the right to marry and live indefinitely with a partner of any nationality in the UK.
A couple, Carmen and Delaunay, married in the UK in 2012, are sharing their story to challenge what they see as the injustice of Brexit.
They moved to France in 2015 to care for Delaunay's ill father and remained there after his death in 2018.
Despite being married to a British spouse, they fear being "landlocked" in France due to Brexit and want the UK government to allow them to return easily.
They argue that they should not be affected by the UK's decision to disallow "staged" marriages, as theirs was not one.
