After 42 years in the United Kingdom, a Ghanaian man named Nelson Shardey, would have to wait another decade for the Home Office to grant him permanent residency.
The 74-year-old retired newsagent, from Wallasey in Wirral, had for many years assumed he was officially seen as British, but he was told he was not British in 2019 when he applied for a passport so he could go back to Ghana following the death of his mother.
According to BBC, Mr Shardey first came to the UK in 1977 to study accountancy, on a student visa that also allowed him to work.
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.
“Nobody questioned me. I bought all my things on credit, even the house. I got a mortgage. And nobody questioned me about anything,” he said.
Mr Shardey has performed jury service, and in 2007 was given a police award for bravery after tackling a robber who was att@cking a delivery man with a baseball bat