{"id":1204,"date":"2023-07-07T12:18:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T12:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2023-07-07T12:18:41","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T12:18:41","slug":"brain-family-finally-free-of-the-home-office-after-a-12-year-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/?p=1204","title":{"rendered":"Brain family &#8216;finally free of the Home Office&#8217; &#8230; after a 12-year battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>AN Australian family living in the Highlands were celebrating last night after they were finally given leave to remain in their Scotland \u2013 after a 12-year battle with the Home Office.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The story of Gregg and Kathryn Brain and their then two-year-old son Lachlan made worldwide headlines after \u00a0the Home Office scrapped the post-study work visa the family arrived here with, and tried to apply the new rules retrospectively.<\/p>\n<p>They settled in Dingwall, from where their determination pitted them against more belligerent immigration ministers and home secretaries than many politicians have had to face \u2013 among them James Brokenshire, \u00a0Caroline Nokes, Theresa May and Amber Rudd.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout their fight they won direct support from MPs Ian Blackford, Drew Hendry and their SNP colleague Kate Forbes, as well as the SNP contingents at Westminster and the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Their case went to Holyrood in 2016, when The National arranged a meeting between the family and then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in her private office, at which we were the only media outlet attending.<\/p>\n<p>However, their arrival in Holyrood\u2019s foyer turned into a media scrum, as Gregg recalled last night: \u201cWe said to Lachlan \u2018we\u2019ve got to say goodbye to Nicola\u2019, then of course seven-year-old Lachlan was saying goodbye to everyone, and just rushed up to Nicola and gave her a hug.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomebody [a photographer] caught the first time he did it, and there was this look of surprised delight on Nicola\u2019s face in the first photo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then of course all the photographers turned around saw it happening just as he let go, and they shouted \u2018do it again, do it again\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the second time for the photographers it looked nice, but it was awkward. I remember finding that one photo and we saved a copy of it somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 600px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-1204-1\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Nicola-Sturgeon-meets-the-Brain-family-26052016.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Nicola-Sturgeon-meets-the-Brain-family-26052016.mp4\">https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Nicola-Sturgeon-meets-the-Brain-family-26052016.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>I was the only journalist allowed to sit in on the meeting in the FM\u2019s private office as she sympathised with how they had been treated, and told them she would do what she could to help.<\/p>\n<p>Eight years later and after a surfeit of changes to immigrations rules \u2013 including many brought about by Brexit \u2013 the Brains had to sit their Life in the UK test. They took it ahead of their application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), which was submitted in April.<\/p>\n<p>Kathryn and Lachlan were told last month that they had passed the test and their ILR had been approved.<\/p>\n<p>Gregg wouldn\u2019t speculate on why his decision was delayed, but yesterday \u2013 two weeks later \u2013 he breathed a sigh of relief as he told us: \u201cHi Greg \u2013 that\u2019s three of us with our Indefinite Leave to Remain applications approved. We\u2019re now officially free of the Home Office!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a Facebook post, the family said it was time to celebrate, and added: \u201cWe\u2019ll be stopping by our immigration solicitor\u2019s office on our way back north as we got the news from Andrew that he now has all three Indefinite Leave to Remain approvals through from the Home Office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lachlan has grown up in Scotland and is now a teenaged pupil at Dingwall Academy, who is fluent in Gaelic, plays clarsach and has performed at the Mod.<\/p>\n<p>After arriving in Scotland as an infant, he now towers over Kathryn, and at around 6ft, is as tall as his father.<\/p>\n<p>Gregg is highly critical of the whole UK immigration system, including the Life in the UK test, which he says is self-defeating: \u201cThey actually sell you a textbook to study from. It\u2019s not a test of your cultural assimilation at all; it\u2019s just a measure of your ability to produce a result in accordance with western education norms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn other words, can you memorise information, and regurgitate it on demand?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd having passed, they don\u2019t even tell you what your score was, let alone which question\/s you might have got wrong, so you can improve your cultural knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s as though they don\u2019t even care about improving your cultural assimilation, but just want to place an extra obstacle in your path.\u00a0 Oh wait &#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And he says he was always wary about the outcome of his application: \u201cThere were legal reasons to consider that the Home Office could come up with a logical legal argument for a refusal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was it was absolutely watertight, but there were logical ways they could come up with a refusal. One of the things that we also considered is that the person who is looking at our case isn\u2019t just considering a legal application. There is a political dimension to it as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so we\u2019re putting in this application in the fervent hope that everyone can avoid the international PR disaster that occurred in 2016 [their meeting with Nicola Sturgeon] and hope that they were thinking much the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut their sensitivity to accountability seems to have increased dramatically over the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When they arrived in Scotland in 2011 after 27 hours on a plane with a two-and-a-half year old child, they did not notice that while Kathryn\u2019s and Lachlan\u2019s passports were stamped, while Gregg\u2019s was not.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1207 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Brain-family-May-28-2021.png?resize=275%2C206&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Brain-family-May-28-2021.png?w=275&amp;ssl=1 275w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Brain-family-May-28-2021.png?resize=155%2C116&amp;ssl=1 155w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/>That came back to haunt him during the years of waiting, when he says he became convinced he was being targeted by the Home Office as they were returning to Scotland after travelling elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2012 they were in Venice and had no visa trouble on their return. However, the following month they went to Australia to catch up with some relatives, and when they returned, Gregg was detained after being asked why he did not come into the UK with his family the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told them I had, but when we looked at my passport there was no stamp. I told them I came in 2011 and \u2018if you guys didn\u2019t do that, that\u2019s an internal administrative issue for you\u2019 \u2026 but of course that\u2019s always visited upon the applicant. They came back 20 minutes later and said \u2018you\u2019re fine, we found you on the passenger manifest\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They refused to retroactively stamp his passport with the proper entry date, which Gregg says has resulted in him having to provide extra documentation \u2013 utility bills, leases and so on \u2013 every time he returns to Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI suspect they\u2019re finding themselves, in order to chase boats, having to appeal to a demographic that\u2019s further and further out along the edge of the bell curve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blackford told The National he was delighted that the Brains\u2019 12-year battle was over, and added: \u201cBut my goodness, what the family have had to endure over that period has been quite extraordinary \u2013 a lot of pain, a lot of tears, a lot of heartache along the way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd let\u2019s not forget that the root of this was them arriving here with the promise of being able to benefit from the post study work visa and that was taken away from them whilst they were in transit to Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a breach of faith and trust that\u2019s been shown to them right at the beginning of this process, and there are times I have to admit that I thought the family would be looking at being deported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I think the fact that so many people rallied round, through the resilience of all of them, that at the end they\u2019ve been able to follow their dreams, their hopes and aspirations, and build a life for all of them in Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re an integral part of our community, they add to Scotland\u2019s story and I\u2019m delighted that for them, at long last, the journey has reached its end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AN Australian family living in the Highlands were celebrating last night after they were finally given leave to remain in their Scotland \u2013 after a 12-year battle with the Home Office. The story of Gregg and Kathryn Brain and their then two-year-old son Lachlan made worldwide headlines after \u00a0the Home Office scrapped the post-study work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregrussell.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/BrainFamily.jpg?fit=1536%2C2048&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}