AN accountant who gathered more than 140,000 signatures supporting her bid to stay in Scotland was yesterday celebrating after receiving discretionary Leave to Remain.
Chennan Fei came to Scotland from China as a 13-year-old to join her parents.
However, when they allowed the family’s immigration status to lapse, the University of Edinburgh graduate found herself involved in a battle with the Home Office to stay here.
Fei, 30, from Renton in West Dunbartonshire, who had been volunteering for the Scottish Refugee Council, won a judicial review when a judge ordered the Home Office to reconsider its decision to deport her.
She then faced another battle after officials reissued the refusal.
The Home Office dropped their challenge just before Christmas, after The National publicised her plight.
Fei, pictured with fiance Duncan Harkness, has now received her “status” documentation from lawyer Usman Aslam, who had been fighting her case.
Aslam, from Glasgow immigration lawyers McGlashan MacKay, said they were proud to have helped Fei with her immigration status, which showed the need for a “serious revision” of the rules. He said: “It is of course regretful, that someone with her skills, with the length of time in the UK, with all of her achievements, that the Home Office had taken her all the way to detention to remove her from the UK.
“This tells you that the immigration rules do need some serious revision, and that the detention policies also require changing.
“Thankfully, we were able to dig out the provisions in the law that would help her and fight with her until matters were resolved in her favour. It must be a great feeling for her and everyone round her to know she can finally get on with her life in the country that is her home.”
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