Expelled from Denmark because he didn’t know he had to reapply to stay in the country after Brexit. It’s the story of Will Hill, 37, with a life in the Scandinavian country and plans to get married in January next year. But the wedding will now have to wait, as will his life with his fiancée: the young man has been ordered to leave the country by Sunday. His application for a stay, presented three weeks late, was rejected as was his appeal to the immigration authorities.
Hill is one of around 300 Britons who applied for a residence permit in Denmark after the 31 December 2021 deadline – she was unaware that she would have to reapply for a residence permit after Brexit, so she submitted her application late. And now there’s nothing he can do: he has to go back to London, leaving his IT security career and above all his partner thousands of miles away. Ida Bøgelund Larsen«worried, confused and nervous».
The young man said that he was asked to provide “information about my work, my personal life, my relationship with my partner, everything. They also asked for photographs of me and Ida». But in the end “they refused me a residence visa because I missed a deadline. They weren’t at all interested in the fact that I integrated into the country, that I work full time, that I pay taxes. None of this would have happened if it weren’t for Brexit, because I would have been treated as an EU citizen.”
Despite the despondency, he has no choice but to return home to his parents in Surrey, a county in southeastern England. But she hopes to return home soon, obtaining a visa based on family reunification rules, and to be able to get married in Denmark at the end of January. The Scandinavian country, Hill denounced, “is using the incompetence of its immigration services as an excuse to deport UK citizens”.
The young man is not the only one who has to change his life not by his own choice. Two weeks ago also another British citizen, Philip Russell, told the same story. Like Hill, he did not know he had to apply to stay in Denmark and, so, having passed the deadline to apply for the renewal of his residence permit, he was ordered to leave by 6 December because his application was four days late.
“You must leave Denmark no later than one month from today’s date, which means no later than December 6, 2022 – read the notice he received -. Furthermore, as a result of our decision, you no longer have the right to work in Denmark without a work permit. We will therefore inform your employer of our decision.” This means, were Russell’s words, “that I will lose my job, my house, my girlfriend, I will be dumped back in London”. “I’m devastated.”
Russell’s girlfriend said she felt “ashamed” of her country’s decisions. “I feel we are fighting against a system that just doesn’t want to help us. They set such tough rules. I mean kick someone out for four days late for a question they never told us we had to ask? I have to admit that I am very ashamed of my country, of all EU member states, who are treating citizens like this.”
Mads Fuglede, spokesman for the Liberal party, has called on the Danish immigration department (Siri) to review the cases of the approximately 290 Britons who applied late for a residence permit. Communication to British citizens about the need to reapply for post-Brexit abode rights “was unsatisfactory and didn’t work,” Fuglede told the newspaper. The politics.
A Siri spokesperson said the department had made “every effort” to ensure the application process was as simple as possible and explained that the government had launched “information campaigns with extensive information on the consequences of Brexit and with guidance on how to submit application”. “The Danish authorities – he added – will accept late applications, if there are reasonable grounds for not meeting the deadline”.