Aretired 74-year-old Ghanaian, Nelson Shardey, who has lived in the United Kingdom (UK) for nearly 50 years has been asked to wait for another 10 years before the Home Office can let him stay permanently.
Shardey, from Wallasey in Wirral, had for many years assumed he was officially seen as British.
He only discovered otherwise in 2019 and, despite paying taxes all his adult life, now faces paying thousands of pounds to stay and use the National Health Service (NHS).
The Home Office declined to comment on the ongoing legal case.
Shardey, a retired newsagent, first entered the UK in 1977 to study Accountancy on a student visa that also allowed him to work.
After a coup in Ghana, his family could no longer send him money for the fees.
He took on a series of jobs, making Mother’s Pride bread and Kipling’s Cakes near Southampton, and Bendick’s Chocolate in Winchester, and said no-one ever queried his right to live or work in the UK.
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.
“I tried my utmost to educate them the best way I could so that neither of them would depend on social or anything,” Shardey said.
He told his sons to “learn hard, get a good job, and work for themselves” and both went to university and have careers as a research scientist and a public relations executive.
