A dance teacher has been forced to move back to New Zealand after being banned from Britain following a mistake in her UK visa application.
Jacinta Landon has reportedly lived in the country since 2006, when she moved to Britain on an ancestry visa issues due to the British citizenship of her grandparents. However, Landon was still in the process of applying for British citizenship when her UK visa expired.
As a result of the oversight, Jacinta was immediately issued with a 28-day notice to leave Britain and informed that she would not be allowed to re-apply for a UK visa for at least a year.
According to Jacinta, who was eventually forced to return to Australia on 30th August 2017, she feels the punishment of banning her from Britain far outweighs the severity of her mistake. Specifically, Landon cited her successful business and husband as two of the main reasons she feels the ban is excessive, both of which have been left behind in the UK.
“The one-year ban might seem like a fitting punishment for someone who has over-stayed because it is their intention to deceive the government, but in my case I had every right to apply for another ancestry visa, I just missed the deadline,” she said.
She added: “One year doesn’t seem so bad on paper, I know, but it’s been four months so far and I feel like I have been punished enough now.”