An Arbroath woman who is fighting against deportation must wait up to three weeks for a Home Office decision following a hearing in Glasgow.
Angela Smith, who first came to Angus from America in the late 1980s and has lived in Arbroath since 2007, applied to renew her residency visa on the basis that she is her daughter’s primary carer.
The application was refused in April as the Home Office said there was no reason why Ceilidh Smith could not remain in the UK with Angela’s ex-husband.
The 46-year-old went to Glasgow in June to fight her case but was dismissed after five hours due to the Home Office solicitor stating the agency was “not prepared”.
However, the mum-of-one, her daughter, and her partner Matthew Tribble were heard in front of a judge this week during a gruelling four-hour cross-examination by a Home Office solicitor.
“It was long and each of our testimonies took nearly an hour plus a very long closing statement,” she said.
“The judge was very good and allowed us each to speak freely now we wait because no judgment has yet been given. We must wait between 10 days and three weeks for the judgment to arrive in the post.”
Angela was planning to buy a house and get married to Mr Tribble before the Home Office turned their world upside down.
The Home Office considered Angela’s application under European law, with reference to the 2009 case of Gerardo Ruiz Zambrano versus the Belgian citizenship bureau.
Two Colombian national parents of Belgian children successfully challenged the administrative decision to reject their continued right of residence in Belgium.
Their departure from Belgium would have meant that, in practice, their Belgian children would also have been obliged to leave the EU.
However, the Court of Appeal in the UK has previously decided the Zambrano principle only applies where the EU citizen would be forced to leave the EU, and not merely where quality of life would be diminished.
The Home Office were approached to comment on the case but did not do so.