Home Office Case L1437566:

Americans Raine (Stacey) and Gwydian (Ronald) Lott have lost absolutely everything in a bid to make a new life in England. Please help them salvage what is left of their lives.

Raine had been accepted to return to University in Oxford on an English Literature course in 2007, something she had dreamed of for years, but her health made it impossible until then. With a plan to study to post-graduate level and pursue her writing whilst her husband worked as an audio engineer, the pair planned to stay permanently and nationalise, feeling that the UK was their 'true home' after spending as much time as possible visiting over the years. Unfortunately, soon after arriving the couple was beset with multiple personal tragedies (the shocking loss of 5 immediate family members - both of the couple's parents and their sister in law, to leukemia, lung cancer, kidney failure, heart complications and MS, respectively), financial loss and Raine's increasingly ill health. Sending as much of money as possible to the US to support the families, Gwydian also went back to the US for the first year to care for Raine's mother and his father, but the diseases moved very quickly. It being their parents' last wishes that the couple live their new life in England they decided that they would work desperately to ensure their life in the UK was successful.

To make things even worse, Raine's father in law was the guarantor for her schedule of large student loans and they were quickly  were cancelled upon his death. The costs of helping with medical bills, the unexpected travel, and the loss of Gwydian's planned job in London, meant that all of their savings and credit had been used up in anticipation of the next loan, which they could in no way convince the loan company to honour or find another guarantor for such a large undertaking. They would also soon lose their home (the family homes in the US were already lost through the cost of massive medical bills) and all of their possessions to bailiffs, forcing them to stay with friends. As things worsened with no help available either from the UK or the US given their situation, things got truly desperate.

Given they were a package deal of a couple and a beagle, they were eventually forced into spending nearly one year living in a moldy tent on the side of the St Albans motorway (to avoid being such a burden on their friends) before being taken in once again by their friends, their extended families and even some strangers, in a rotating schedule, spending time in their tent when necessary. The couple also lost what little self esteem they had left and Raine has been met with progressively ill health - eventually even winding up in a wheelchair last year. This situation is destroying them: both of them now suffer from severe depression and anxiety, while experiencing utter destitution, total humiliation and degradation - not what they imagined when they left the US to fulfill their life-long dream of living permanently in England.  Multiple doctors have informed the Home Office that Mrs. Lott is not well enough travel internationally, (suffering from extremely severe headaches, blackouts, hallucinations, memory loss and difficulty concentrating, extreme pain and lack of mobility, high blood pressure, claustrophobia, and as mentioned above, anxiety and depression) nor do doctors believe she should be forced again into homelessness and pain by removing them back to their US departure point - New Jersey (where they have no family, no friends, no prospects - no ties whatsoever after nearly a decade in Britain). They mean to take them away from the only family they have left - their friends and their network here in England. UKVI  have also been informed that Raine's now elderly medical assistance dog Beansidhe 'Boo', a beagle is (at 13 years old) too old to make this long trip either by plane or via ship; a UKBA agent has told them previously that  they will 'get us out any way they can'. The Home Office has said before that all of these reasons above are 'not enough' to grant the couple a compassionate circumstances residence visa, though it is hard to imagine what would be if all of this misfortune is 'not enough'. They have recently told the MP from their former home in St Albans they are no longer able to help, as they are now living in a very generous friend's empty flat in Deal, Kent, where they hope to settle. Help us change their mind immediately.

'We love this country, it's people, it's culture, even it's weather - and have been here almost ten years. We are British now. Please allow us to remain in our adopted home and to nationalise, to become truly British'.  UK Border Agents may at any time try to remove the trio forcibly, without Boo if they choose to -  please do not allow that to happen. Help us change their mind now and finally give them a chance at a new life as Brits!