Your report (Wife of British man at risk of deportation from Sweden calls on Burnham to intervene, 3 September) highlights a painful truth about post-Brexit immigration: families are being treated as administrative burdens rather than human beings. However, this harsh treatment cuts both ways.
I am a 71-year-old German-American citizen, married to my British husband for 38 years. We have only ever been apart for work. We bought property in the UK in 2023 so my husband could retire there. After retiring from my job in Germany, I applied for a UK family visa on 1 April 2026, expecting to settle down with him and my two adult sons within six weeks. The lawyer was rather optimistic.
Five months later, and over £7,000 on costs, I am still waiting. My application remains “under consideration”. I have hired a lawyer, involved an MP, filed official complaints, and paid for priority services, yet the Home Office remains an impenetrable wall.
While British media rightly highlights the harsh treatment of UK citizens abroad, the UK Home Office is quietly inflicting the exact same cruelty on older spouses from allied nations. At 71, my husband and I are losing precious time together to bureaucratic inertia. If we expect European countries to show humanity to British citizens, the UK must show the same decency to the families of its own people.
Vera-Lynn Watson
Birkenfeld, Germany
