A man who has lived in the United Kingdom for decades has been reeling in shock after he was told that he is not British and therefore has no right to stay in the United Kingdom permanently.
The man, Nelson Shardey, has stayed in the United Kingdom for 42 years. According to a report that was published by the BBC, Nelson Shardey first moved to the UK in 1977 from his home country of Ghana. He moved using a student visa to study accounting. The study visa also had provisions allowing him to work.
The BBC reported that Shardey, who is now retired and aged 74 years, did not complete his initial studies because of lack of fees. Apparently, after a coup in Ghana, his family could no longer afford to send him fees.
“[Shardey] took on a series of jobs, making Mother’s Pride bread and Kipling’s Cakes near Southampton, and Bendick’s Chocolate in Winchester, and said no-one ever queried his right to live or work in the UK,” the BBC reported.
“He married a British woman and moved to Wallasey to run his own business, a newsagent called Nelson’s News. When that marriage ended, he married another British woman and they had two sons Jacob and Aaron.”
He told the BBC that he had never left the United Kingdom because he saw no need to since he considered himself ‘British’. He told the BBC that nobody questioned him; that he bought all his things on credit, even his house through a mortgage. As it has turned out though, Shardey never regularized his status in the country, despite living under the radar all along.
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Things changed in 2019 when he applied for a passport, so that he could go back to Ghana following the death of his mother. His application was rejected and he was told that he was not British the Home Office and that he had no right to be in the UK.
“Officials told him to apply for the 10-year route to settlement. Over the 10 years it costs about £7,000, with a further £10,500 over the same period to access the NHS,” the BBC reported. To make matters worse, when Shardey attempted to extend his right to stay in the UK online two years ago, he filled out the wrong form. “That meant the 10-year process had to begin again in 2023,” the BBC reported.