Visa delays crippling lives of hundreds of UK migrants – even when they have British children
Hundreds of migrants living in the UK are facing agonising delays in finding out if they can stay, despite some having British children.
Most immigrants in the UK have to apply to extend their stay every 30 months – before qualifying to remain indefinitely after either five or 10 years – paying thousands of pounds each time.
In many cases, the Home Office aims to respond within eight weeks, but figures obtained by Sky News show 902 immigrants seeking study or partner visas have been waiting more than a year.
Lengthy delays can cause applicants to lose their jobs, have their benefits suspended and leave them dealing with crippling debt, even if they already live in the country legally.
Independent migration policy researcher Zoe Gardner said the figures, which also show 167 cases have remained unresolved for at least 20 years, “point to a problem” at the Home Office.
“These delays can seriously impact people’s lives, even if it’s 900 people waiting over a year – this is potentially life-ruining for those people and it’s clearly systemic,” she told Sky News.
Applicants are charged £1,258 just to submit forms for what the Home Office refers to as Leave to Remain visas, £1,035 per year to use the NHS plus potentially thousands more in legal fees.
Parents of four children Ali and Sade, who qualified for spouse visas after visiting Britain, said they applied for a fee waiver to dodge an £8,000 bill for their third extension in May 2023.
Three of their children are British citizens – having been born in the UK and lived here for 10 years – while their eight-year-old daughter is part of their current application.
But more than 18 months later they are still waiting for an answer – a delay they told Sky News has cost Ali his job over the uncertainty, left them in debt and relying on food banks.
“Now my husband’s work is gone, we are relying only on my end, it’s not enough,” said Sade, who works as a carer and like Ali didn’t want to give her real name in the wake of the Southport riots.
“It’s taking food away from our children’s mouths, so we go back to food banks and this all impacts our health. It makes you feel like you’re in the wrong place, even with British children.”
‘How long can we do this?’
Ali said he lost his job in security when his contract was due for renewal in September after he couldn’t prove to his employers he has the right to work.
He fears they won’t be able to afford their next round of applications, adding: “How will I work and raise money while paying bills in just another two and a half years for three applications?
“Even if I work every month I can’t afford the fees. We don’t know if we will qualify for a fee waiver. We have to save now, but how long can we do this for?”
To make matters worse, Sade’s father died last month in Nigeria, but because she wouldn’t be allowed back in the country until her status is clarified she will miss the funeral.
The family had also planned to take the children, aged eight, 12, 13 and 18, on their first ever trip abroad over the summer – a holiday they had to cancel for the same reason.
Home Office ‘failure’
Since 2020, the Refugee and Migrant Forum Of Essex & London (RAMFEL) has been tracking how its clients have fared during 3C leave and claim 17% have suffered “serious detriment”.
If replicated on a national level, the groups estimates 40,000 people on 3C leave could lose their job each year – compounded by the Home Office’s “failure to respond to employment verification checks in a timely manner”.
RAMFEL’s head of campaigning, Nick Beales, told Sky News there are “crueller aspects” of the immigration system, but “nothing better evidences its dysfunction” than parents of British citizens waiting nearly two years for renewals.
Read more:
Net UK migration falls by 20%
Breaking down new UK figures
The figures obtained by Sky News show 346 partner visa applications have been unresolved for more than 10 years, which Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, described as “puzzling”.
“In theory, delays are a problem addressed with more resources, it is fixable,” she told Sky News, adding another option could be to simplify the process by requiring fewer applications.
A Home Office source acknowledged applications can “sometimes take longer to process”, but said they can “vary in complexity” depending on the individual circumstances.
They added employers can check an individual’s status with the department while the application is pending.
It means little to Ali, who said they have already spent a costly year and a half waiting for a process that will need them to go through the same applications again within 30 months.
“Sometimes the children look at us and ask why we are sad,” he said.
“Even if they give it today, it doesn’t make sense anymore… we will need to raise money again to renew.
“I don’t know how we are going to do it.”
Retired artist Ed Suman lost over $2 million in cryptocurrency earlier this year after falling victim to a scam involving someone posing as a Coinbase support representative.
Suman, 67, spent nearly two decades as a fabricator in the art world, helping build high-profile works such as Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog sculptures, according to a May 17 report by Bloomberg.
After retiring, he turned to cryptocurrency investing, eventually accumulating 17.5 Bitcoin (BTC) and 225 Ether (ETH) — a portfolio that comprised most of his retirement savings.
He stored the funds in a Trezor Model One, a hardware wallet commonly used by crypto holders to avoid the risks of exchange hacks. But in March, Suman received a text message appearing to be from Coinbase, warning him of unauthorized account access.
After responding, he got a phone call from a man identifying himself as a Coinbase security staffer named Brett Miller. The caller appeared knowledgeable, correctly stating that Suman’s funds were stored in a hardware wallet.
He then convinced Suman that his wallet could still be vulnerable and walked him through a “security procedure” that involved entering his seed phrase into a website mimicking Coinbase’s interface.
Nine days later, a second caller claiming to be from Coinbase repeated the process. By the end of that call, all of Suman’s crypto holdings were gone.
Related: Bitcoin breaks out while Coinbase breaks down: Finance Redefined
Coinbase suffers major data breach
The scam followed a data breach at Coinbase disclosed this week, in which attackers bribed customer support staff in India to access sensitive user information.
Stolen data included customer names, account balances, and transaction histories. Coinbase confirmed the breach impacted roughly 1% of its monthly transacting users.
Among those affected was venture capitalist Roelof Botha, managing partner at Sequoia Capital. There is no indication that his funds were accessed, and Botha declined to comment.
Coinbase’s chief security officer, Philip Martin, reportedly said the contracted customer service agents at the center of the controversy were based in India and had been fired following the breach.
The exchange has also said it plans to pay between $180 million and $400 million in remediation and reimbursement to affected users.
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United Kingdom crypto companies will need to collect and report data from every customer trade and transfer beginning Jan. 1, 2026 as part of a broader effort to improve crypto tax reporting, the UK government said.
Everything from the user’s full name, home address and tax identification number will need to be collected and reported for every transaction, including the cryptocurrency used and the amount moved, the UK Revenue and Customs department said in a May 14 statement.
Details of companies, trusts and charities transacting on crypto platforms will also need to be reported.
Failure to comply or inaccurate reporting may incur penalties of up to 300 British pounds ($398.4) per user. The UK Revenue and Customs department said it would inform companies on how to comply with the incoming measures in due course.
However, UK authorities are encouraging crypto firms to start collecting data now to ensure compliance readiness.
The new rule is part of the UK’s integration of the Organisation for Economic Development’s Cryptoasset Reporting Framework to improve transparency in crypto tax reporting.
The changes reflect the UK government’s aim to establish a more robust regulatory framework that supports industry growth while ensuring consumer protection.
Related: Bitwise lists four crypto ETPs on London Stock Exchange
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves also introduced a draft bill in late April to bring crypto exchanges, custodians and broker-dealers within its regulatory reach to combat scams and fraud.
“Today’s announcement sends a clear signal: Britain is open for business — but closed to fraud, abuse, and instability,” Reeves said at the time.
A study from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority last November found that 12% of UK adults owned crypto in 2024 — a significant increase from the 4% reported in 2021.
UK’s approach contrasts with EU’s MiCA
The UK’s move to integrate the crypto rules into its existing financial framework contrasts with the European Union’s approach, which introduced the new Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation framework last year.
According to the MiCA Crypto Alliance, one key difference is that the UK will allow foreign stablecoin issuers to operate in the UK without needing to register.
There will also be no cap on stablecoin volumes, unlike the EU’s approach, which may impose controls on stablecoin issuers to manage systemic risks.
Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight
Hong Kong police arrested 12 people involved in a cross-border money laundering scheme that relied on crypto and over 500 stooge bank accounts to launder HK$118 million ($15 million), local news outlets reported.
The syndicate was dismantled on May 15, resulting in the arrest of nine men and three women in mainland China and Hong Kong.
The suspects allegedly recruited others to open bank accounts to receive proceeds from fraud cases, which were then converted into crypto at crypto exchange shops to launder the illicit funds, Hong Kong Commercial Daily reported on May 17.
The criminal organization rented a residential unit in the Hong Kong neighborhood of Mong Kok to plan and carry out its money laundering activities. Of the $15 million laundered, more than $1.2 million was linked to 58 reported fraud cases.
Caught in action
The bust followed police surveillance on May 15, when two recruits left the syndicate’s Mong Kok base — one visiting a bank, the other an ATM — before both went to convert the cash into crypto at a crypto exchange shop in the neighborhood of Tsim Sha Tsui.
Police arrested both individuals on the spot, seizing around HK$770,000 ($98,540) in cash before the funds could be laundered. The other 10 individuals, aged between 20 and 41, were arrested soon after.
Police seized approximately HK$1.05 million ($134,370) in cash, over 560 ATM cards, multiple mobile phones, bank documents and records related to crypto transactions.
Senior Inspector Tse Ka-lun of Hong Kong’s Commercial Crime Bureau claimed that the individuals often used bank accounts from their friends and family to launder the stolen funds.
Hong Kong reported a 12% year-on-year increase in fraud reports in 2024, with authorities making more than 10,000 fraud-related arrests. Of those arrests, around 73% involved individuals who held stooge bank accounts.
Related: DOJ charges 12 more gamer-turned $263M Bitcoin robbers
The crackdown comes as Hong Kong continues to roll out its crypto regulatory framework to support local innovation, protect consumers and establish itself as a crypto hub.
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission introduced new rules for crypto exchanges offering staking services in April. Two months earlier, the securities regulator rolled out a roadmap to improve market access, optimize compliance, expand product offerings, strengthen crypto infrastructure and foster relationships with industry players.
Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight
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