New Zealand man blocked from seeing new-born baby after Home Office loses passport and ‘lies’ about visa refusal

Exclusive: Father separated from partner and children for nearly a year and has never met his five-month-old son following 'catalogue of errors' by immigration officials

Luke Thomas has been separated from his two daughters and new-born son amid months of Home Office delay and errors by immigration officials (Simone Brookes)

A man from New Zealand has been blocked from seeing his newborn son for more than five months after the Home Office lost his passport and wrongly stated that his visa had been refused.

Luke Thomas, 29, has been separated from his partner and three children for nearly a year following months of delays and apparent errors by immigration officials, which have most recently resulted in him being issued a visa that had already expired.

The youth worker said it was "heart-breaking" to have never held his child and to have only ever seen him in photographs.

In April, he had applied to join his heavily pregnant British girlfriend, Simone Brookes, and their two young children in the UK. The couple had lived together in New Zealand for 10 years and planned to settle in Britain before giving birth to their third child.

(Simone Brookes)

Mr Thomas applied for an Unmarried Partner Visa in April, paying £573 for premium service, which is supposed to give the claim priority status.

But five months later, he is still waiting to be reunited with his family and has never met his five-month-old son, driving both him and his partner into a state of desperation.

Danielle Blake, the couple's immigration advisor, said the Home Office had lost Mr Thomas's passport, claimed to never have received the application – despite a delivery confirmation – and continually sent the same templated customer service emails.

She said the department had also lied to her about case developments and, at one point, wrongly claimed that the visa had been refused.

Mr Thomas received his passport and visa at the end of September, only to discover that the entry stamp to the UK had already expired – suggesting the Home Office had sat on his approved visa for nearly a month.

Speaking from New Zealand, Mr Thomas told The Independent he was beginning to give up on ever being able to reunite with his partner and children in the UK.

“My son is four months old and I’ve never touched him, only seen photos. It’s heart-breaking. I’m wasting time here,” he said.

Ms Brookes, 32, is currently living in a rented home in Dudley with her two daughters – aged three and seven – and baby son. She said not having her partner there for the birth of their child, and in the months that followed, had driven her into a state of depression.

The couple's eldest daughter with their baby son, who Mr Thomas has not yet been able to meet (Simone Brookes)

“I’ve been depressed, being on my own. We had been living together for 11 years. But I’ve had to deal with everything here all on my own, being pregnant and then having the baby,” she said.

“The girls don’t understand the situation. I tell them daddy’s got to sort the paperwork out. But every time we think it’s sorted, and we get their hopes up, there’s another problem, and I’ve got to explain it to them again.

“It’s hard for Luke. He gets emotional because he’s missing everything. The first six months of our son’s life he hasn’t even held him. We’ve lost so much time as a family, he’s missed so much.

“I don’t think I would have come back if I knew this was going to happen and we would have been apart and this would break up our family like this.”

The 32-year-old, who had worked full-time in New Zealand as a healthcare worker on a dementia ward, said the difficulty communicating with the Home Office had made her feel "helpless".

“As soon as you’ve resolved something, there’s always been another problem. We sent so many complaints to immigration, it’s unreal. We’re constantly pushed onto someone else. We’re hitting a brick wall all the time, and there’s nothing we can do,” she said

(Simone Brookes (Simone Brookes)

“They’ve got all the control, all the power. There’s nothing you can say. You just feel helpless, and the whole time, our family is in bits.”

Ms Blake, from the Immigration Advice Service (IAS), said the case was one of the worst she had worked on and accused the Home Office of presiding over a "catalogue of errors" which she said stemmed from a lack of communication within the department.

“It’s extremely frustrating. They took a month to even realise they had the paperwork to begin with. This family paid £573 for the fast-track service, and it’s taken longer than it should for the standard time," she said.

"The Home Office determined back in July that they were going to approve the application – we had confirmation of that then – but it’s taking them so long to actually get the visa issued.

"There's real disorganisation within the department, no communication between staff members. It doesn’t seem as though people check file notes to see what’s being done."

Ms Blake said the Home Office had ignored her complaints that a new visa, free of charge, ought to be issued in the prolonged case.

"If anyone looked at this couple’s case, they would see how long it’s been going on for, with all of the emails that have gone back and forth, and would surely rectify it," she added.

A Home Office spokesperson said they did not comment on individual cases but that officials were investigating the delay in Mr Thomas's passport reaching him.