I don't feel like a person any more. I feel like a number that they are just trying to get rid of.
I got permission to start up my business here, which I have done. And I did this with the expectation that, after four years, all this hard work would result in indefinite leave to remain. I went on the gov.uk website after receiving a text from my friend, and I saw that the website said they are no longer accepting applications for indefinite leave to remain.
I felt like over four years I've fulfilled all of my obligations, whereas the Home Office are not meeting their end of the deal. You come here with a certain expectation, and then you fulfil all of the requirements that you need to fulfil, and you jump through all the hoops, only to find that they've just put up another one.
The Home Office's justification for these changes is that running a business here doesn't require indefinite leave to remain, and that we can still set up and run businesses without having permanent residency here. Whereas I think that is ridiculous. You don't have the stability. You're not able to take the same level of risks.
Many of us feel let down, and cheated, even. And especially if you have invested in a business here - many people have sold their houses, they've sold or left behind existing businesses to come here - it does kind of leave a bitter taste in the sense that you no longer feel able to trust the Home Office. You do wonder, if this is what they've done now, what next?
