The Home Office is threatening to ban a Canadian academic from the UK after she was unable to renew her visa in time during a mental health crisis.
Dr Heather Scott has lived in Britain since she came in 2011 on a study visa. The renowned academic, whose area of research relates to Victorian cemeteries including Highgate, Brompton and Abney Park, is required to be based in London.
She has successfully renewed her visa seven times in the past. But in 2022, she became seriously mentally ill. She was hospitalised for 13 weeks and was unable to engage with the visa renewal system as a result of being so unwell.
She overstayed for 46 days before her family in Canada could make an application for further leave to remain on her behalf.
Since then she has been trying to resolve her visa situation for three years with no success, despite submitting extensive documentary evidence to the Home Office about the medical emergency she experienced.
“I am deeply concerned about the effects this will have on my research and employment and on my quality of life and continued recovery,” Scott told the Guardian. “This feels like a penalty for an infraction that was outside of my control. It does not seem right that I should be punished for having an illness.”
Her mental health has improved and she has resumed her academic research.
She has lodged an appeal on human rights grounds, but if it is unsuccessful she is facing a ban from the UK. An application she made in 2024 for leave to remain was refused on the grounds that she was medically stable and could return to Canada.
Scott said: “My case highlights the issue of the Home Office applying policy in a way that is actually at odds with their own and Prime Minister Starmer’s priority of attracting and retaining highly qualified professionals within the UK’s research and employment sectors. It also highlights the hostility of the current climate regarding mental illness.”
In its refusal letter, the Home Office said that indefinite leave to remain was “a privilege, not an automatic entitlement”. Officials added: “A mere wish, desire or preference to live in the UK does not amount to an exceptional circumstance.”
They said the fact she was prevented from applying in time to renew her visa due to being “acutely ill” also did not amount to an exceptional circumstance.
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Scott’s solicitor, Muhunthan Paramesvaran of Wilson Solicitors, said: “This is an exceptional case and the Home Office’s decision is wrong in my view. She has spent 10 years here lawfully and had it not been for her mental health issues she would have been able to sit the life in the UK test and would have been granted indefinite leave to remain.
“The Home Office has discretion to grant indefinite leave to remain outside the rules. Their refusal to do so has had a devastating impact on her. She has had to put her life on hold.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the immigration rules.”