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ONE PAPER ... ALL THE NEWS from Dewsbury, Batley, Ossett, Mirfield, Liversedge, Birstall, Heckmondwike, Cleckheaton & Spen Valley
Friday April 29, 2016
12 MONTHS
No. 735
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Mum lived here for 27 years but they won’t let her come home Daughter’s heartbreak at 6,000-mile separation caused by immigration rules By David Miller News Reporter davidmiller@thepressnews.co.uk
A GRANDMOTHER from Mirfield is stuck in an immigration nightmare 6,000 miles from the place she calls home.
Kim Matthews... “My mum feels British and wants to come home to England”
Pulsuk Kulpol, 56, is a Thai national who returned to her homeland in 2009 after 27 years in the UK. She did so with her then husband, but has wanted to return ever since their marriage broke down in 2011. Pulsuk, also known as Sue, arrived in the UK in 1982 on a
spousal visa but never took citizenship. And having been out of the country for more than two years she has lost her right to be here and is stuck in Thailand. Daughter Kim Matthews, 30, of Marshall Street, Lower Hopton, said: “My mum feels she doesn’t have anything to live for over there. “She doesn’t feel Thai any more. She feels British and wants to come home to England.” Her mum had various jobs in Mirfield, including work at Harry’s fish and chip shop and the Fieldhead Park care home. Kim said: “It’s not like my mum came here to claim every benefit going. She paid taxes for 27 years and had a National Insurance card.
Pulsuk with grandson Niko “In phone calls all she does is cry and say she wants to come home. But we seem to be out of options.” The only UK visas that might help would require Kim to earn at
least £18,500 a year. One would be a family sponsorship and the other is a visitors’ visa for six months of the year, which would ban her from working in the UK. Kim, who works part-time so she can look after two-year-old son Niko, said: “It’s a tick-box situation and if you don’t fit the tick boxes you’re stuck. “We’ve tried everything. But there’s not a visa that fits our circumstances. It’s just impossible.” A letter from Paula Sherriff MP (Lab, Dewsbury and Mirfield) said she would back any visa application the family are able to make. Kim visited Thailand in October 2014 so her mum could meet Niko for the first time.
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