Couple accuse Home Office of treating them 'like criminals' in deportation ordeal

Maria Cristina Udeda Tuero-O'Donnell and Stuart Ross say officials would not accept that she was working as a Spanish language teacher

Stuart Ross said he thought his permanent residency application would be a formality (Getty)

A Spanish woman who has lived in the UK for 15 years has accused the Home Office of treating her and her American husband like criminals after he applied for a permanent residence (PR) card.

Over the course of a three year battle, the Home Office threatened to deport historian Stuart Ross and refused to accept a court ruling which said that officials had been wrong to reject his application for a PR card in 2013.

They also said they thought Maria Cristina Udeda Tuero-O’Donnell was lying about her work as a Spanish language teacher.

She told The Guardian: “It was really frustrating and I am still angry.

“They treated us like criminals. We couldn’t travel because they had our passports. I was pregnant and I couldn’t travel on my own. I am an only child and my parents are elderly, but I couldn’t see them. My family in Spain couldn’t understand and were asking: ‘Why, what did you do?’”

Dr Ross, 49, from New York and Ms Ubeda, 41, from Madrid, met in the Spanish capital in 2002 while he was completing his PhD and they married before he graduated.

They have been living together in Derry since 2007 and have three UK-born children, aged two, six and nine, and initially believed their application would be treated as a formality.

When Dr Ross first applied he submitted tax evidence that his wife was economically active and by virtue of EU treaties means they both have the right to be in the country.

But the Home Office told them this was insufficient evidence and they needed five years worth of returns.

The couple subsequently provided all of this in two subsequent applications along with other information such as mortgage and bank statements, details of National Insurance contributions, a letter from his MP and one from a former tax inspector.

But the Home Office said this was not enough evidence to prove Ms Udeda was working and that he should “make arrangements” to leave the country.

They also sent letters referring him to Refugee Action, a charity that could help him book a flight out of the country and help him with “reintegration” into the US.

He said: “At the time you are furious, you’re angry, frustrated, you run the whole gamut of emotions. There is nothing worse than doing the right thing but then being told that is not good enough. You feel powerless.”

Dr Ross appealed the decision at a court in Belfast and won but the Home Office refused to accept the verdict and appealed.

Eventually an appeals court threw out the case as the lower court had not made an error in law.

The couple were told by their lawyer that their case was not a “precedent-setting case” but they felt compelled to speak out after reading about a Japanese woman who had her child benefit and driving licence taken away in similar circumstances.

In a statement to The Guardian, the Home Office said: “We exercised our right of appeal in this case to clarify points of law, and fully accept the outcome. Dr Ross had the right to reside and work throughout the process.”