A former shopkeeper described as a Merseyside “local legend” is pursuing a legal challenge against the Home Office after he was refused indefinite leave to remain, despite living in the UK for more than 45 years.
Nelson Shardey, 74, came to the UK from Ghana at the age of 28 on a student visa in 1977 and has lived in the country ever since. The retired newsagent, who has two sons living in the UK, has no access to public funds or pension credits after the Home Office refused to grant him indefinite leave to remain and wrongly advised him to apply for the Windrush scheme.
Shardey, who ran his shop, Nelson’s News, in Wirral for 31 years, said he believed he had British citizenship until he tried to apply for a visa to attend his mother’s funeral in Ghana in 2019. Shardey was granted two and a half years limited leave by the Home Office, which was later revoked after he made a mistake in an application in 2022. At the time, he was undergoing treatment for cancer and said “there was no help” when filling out the application forms.
“I could have cried but I always bottle everything in and never show my emotions. I was really shocked,” Shardey said. “All along I know I am part of this country because this is where I live and this is where I’ve been working, this is where I’ve contributed to everything. I have never come across any difficulty in any department that I don’t belong here.”
Last year, the Home Office told Shardey to restart his route to settlement, where he must apply for limited leave to remain every two and a half years and pay thousands in visa fees until he completes 10 years of leave. Only then would he be eligible for indefinite leave to remain, until at least the age of 84.
Shardey, whose sons, Aaron and Jacob, liken him to the Big Friendly Giant, said he had no reason to doubt his citizenship as he was granted mortgages, paid taxes, completed jury service, was able to get married and have three children in the UK. During his time as a newsagent, Shardey became well known locally and was handed the Mersey Marvel award in 2007 after he saved a friend from a masked robber.
He said: “To see the whole community appreciating who you were, the way they welcomed you, the way they more or less regard you as a human being, not a stranger. I was really happy and I got on well with everybody.”
Shardey’s lawyer, Nicola Burgess, from the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, said the decision to refuse Shardey indefinite leave to remain was flawed and has submitted an application for judicial review, which a tribunal has granted.
Burgess said: “Legally, the decision is flawed and on a compassionate level it is clearly unfair to expect him to remain in the UK with precarious status until at least his mid-80s, before he can even apply for indefinite leave to remain.
“The Home Office accepts that Nelson’s whole life is in the UK, this isn’t going to change and so there can be no rational purpose for him to be put through what the Home Office calls a probationary period.”
Burgess said “incomplete record keeping from the Home Office, inconsistent decision making, and lack of duty of candour in litigation” was prolonging the process for Shardey and his family.
Shardey’s son Aaron, 30, said the Windrush unit gave the family a “misleading claim” when a Home Office caseworker advised his father to apply for the Windrush scheme in 2022, despite not being eligible, which “added 18 months to our time of effectively Dad being in no man’s land”.
Aaron, who previously worked as a press officer in two government departments, said: “That’s when it became quite anger-inducing because of the lack of competent advice we’d had from the Home Office. Because of this, I remember I was calling the Home Office at least twice a week to ask: ‘What’s going on? You said this can take six weeks, we’re now at eight months, it’s 10 months, Dad’s getting closer to 80.’”
After Burgess submitted a data protection request, it was also revealed a Home Office caseworker had advised Shardey to be granted indefinite leave to remain, citing his length of residence and contributions to society, but this was not granted.
The family, who now face paying thousands of pounds in fees if they lose the legal challenge, said the process “involves considerable financial risk”.
Aaron said: “Whatever the outcome, we would much rather have tried than to have submitted to a biased system that penalises the most vulnerable in our society.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “It would be inappropriate to comment on active legal proceedings.”
