Amir lives in Ireland, his wife and seven children were living in Beirut after fleeing Syria.
“I have not seen my wife and children since 2015. I arrived in the UK in 2016 and I got my asylum papers later that year, I then went through the family reunification procedures.
My wife and children were in Syria, and they tried to leave Syria to neighboring countries, and they were unable to leave as if they were in the conflict of the conflicting factions. This harsh situation was at the end of 2017. After that they were able to reach the capital, Damascus, and they stayed there to extract the papers that we lost in the war until 2018, then they went to Beirut, Lebanon, to conduct the first visa interview.
They were required to have papers from the consulate office in Lebanon to Amman, Jordan. After waiting two and a half months, the first refusal came, after which I had to take a DNA test. Then my family came for the second interview, and after a long wait came the second rejection, and that was all we could pay for. Nobody could handle it, and after refusing both times, the lawyer told me we have to go to court and appeal for this.
The appeal papers were submitted in 2018, and the hearing did not come until November 2019. After waiting for a whole year we went to the court and half an hour before entering the hall we sent the letter from the Ministry of Interior to the lawyer. The visas were approved and after that they did not inform me of any further interview date so we sent the papers to the British embassy in Amman, Jordan.
We continued to wait for my wife and my children until 2020 and when the coronavirus came we were all worried. Then the lawyer told us, your wife and children to go to the consulate office in Lebanon to present their required papers to the British Embassy in Amman, Jordan, and then they went and presented the papers, we went to wait, and after a few days, a consulate employee asked us to receive the visas.
My wife went to the office and only found 6 visas, which is frustrating for us and my children who are worried about my wife and little daughter’s visas.”
This week six of his children were flown to join him in Belfast. His wife and youngest daughter continue to wait for their visas to be issued.
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