Yahoo News What is settled status? Home Office U-turn after French grandmother who has lived in UK for 42 years faced deportation
Leonarda Zarcone, 74, risked being deported from the UK because an email from the Home Office went to her junk inbox.
A grandmother with French citizenship who has lived in the UK for 42 years was nearly forced to leave the country after failing to spot a Home Office email in her junk folder.
Leonarda Zarcone, 74, was told she missed the deadline to apply for settled status despite living and working in Britain since 1981. The Home Office demanded more evidence of her UK residency in an email, but it landed in her junk folder, which she never checked.
Zarcone faced weeks of uncertainty when the government sent her a letter last month warning she'd be prosecuted unless she left the country. However, the Home Office has now made a U-turn after her family pleaded with the department to reconsider.
Much to her relief, Zarcone has now been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK, but her son David Brunetto, 51, said that it "should never have got to this point". He added: "My mum has had so many sleepless nights about being arrested because technically she was an illegal immigrant.
"It shows just how precarious the system is if you can be ordered to leave the country on the basis of an email being sent to a junk folder. I really hope the Home Office will learn lessons from this. The way my mum was treated was just not right."
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Italy-born Zarcone moved to the UK as a child before living in France, where she was granted French citizenship. She and her husband Marcel Brunetto, 77, moved to Britain in 1981 and settled in Leicester, where they ran a fish and chip shop and raised three children.
After Britain left the EU in 2020 following the 2016 Brexit referendum, Zarcone and her family applied for settled status to continue living in the country. The settled status scheme grants EU nationals and their families who have spent five years in the UK the same rights as British citizens.
Her family qualified but Zarcone missed the deadline as the Home Office's email demanding more financial information landed in her spam inbox. Brunetto said: "She had never used an email before and she is cautious about talking to people on the phone in case she's being scammed."
He suggested that all of this trouble could have been avoided had his mother been sent a letter, but that phone and email were the only options for contact listed on the application form. "When I opened the letter it was the shock of my life," said Zarcone, who has three grown-up children and four grandchildren.
"All my family and my roots are here. It was really frightening. I had nowhere to go," she added. "My mum and dad moved to England and lived her their whole lives. After they died we buried them here. I have paid National Insurance, taxes and lived an honest life. My family have made their lives here and my youngest daughter was born in the UK. We even support Leicester City football team, this is our home."
Brunetto submitted EU settlement claims for his parents along with his own online application. Zarcone found out her application had failed when an immigration officer stopped her when she returned from a family wedding in France in September.
Home Office 'had plenty of proof already'
"I was an illegal immigrant and all because of an email which was sent to my junk folder," Zarcone said, adding that she cried thinking she could be deported due to such a simple mistake.
Her son, who also lives in Leicester, said: "My mum's records prove that she has been living here for decades. She's received a state pension for seven years so clearly she's lived here continually and she's paid into the system. She's paid her taxes. She's paying council tax. There's lots of proof."
On Friday, the Home Office emailed Brunetto to confirm his mother had been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. It said: "I am pleased to inform you that your application under the EU settlement scheme has been successful."
A spokesperson said: "All EU settlement scheme applications are carefully considered on their individual merits, on the basis of the evidence provided and in accordance with the immigration rules. A wide range of support remains available for applicants, including vulnerable people. This includes support through a Grant Funded Network of third party organisations dedicated to assisting vulnerable people with their applications."
What is settled status?
After the UK voted to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016, new immigration rules had to be drawn up for the EU citizens already living in the country. Any EU citizens and family members staying in the UK by 31 December 2020 were given a deadline of 30 June 2021 to register for settled status.
If this was approved, it would mean they'd have a guaranteed right to stay in the UK indefinitely, as well as to work or study in the country. Those with settled status also have full rights to healthcare and public funds such as state benefits and pensions.
A common way to become eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain is to live continuously in the country, on a legal visa, for five or more years. However, special arrangements were made under the EU settlement scheme for citizens from the bloc who had been in the UK before 31 December 2020 but had not reached this benchmark.
They were granted "pre-settled status", which initially gave them five years in the country before applying for full settled status, law firm Davidson Morris explains. Those who failed to make an application risked losing their right to remain in the UK.
However, a landmark High Court judgment in December 2022 ruled that this policy was unlawful, meaning EU, EEA and Swiss nationals no longer have to make a second application, provided they can prove they've been living in the UK continuously.
