An 80-year-old Polish woman is facing deportation from the U.K. after her residence permit extension application was rejected by the British Home Office for being submitted online and not on paper.
Elżbieta Olszewska moved to England from Warsaw in September last year to join her son Michał Olszewski after deciding it would be better if she lived closer so he could provide help.
Olszewski, 52, an aerospace engineer who has lived in Britain since 2006 and has dual citizenship, has been traveling between the two countries to provide care for his mother.
Under the settlement program, people in Olszewski's situation have the legal option of bringing their parents to the U.K.
Because Olszewska’s tourist visa expired in March, she needed to apply for a permanent residence permit, which she did by submitting her application online long before the expiry date.
But the application was rejected because the extension of stay application has to be submitted in paper form; despite there being no mention of this requirement, the U.K.’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
‘Soviet bureaucracy’
To make matters worse, because there is no right of appeal against the Home Office’s decision, Olszewska has now been stripped of her legal status in Britain, leaving the family shocked and angry.
Outraged, Olszewski told the newspaper: “This is a big disgrace from the Home Office. It was only after almost six months that they told us the application was invalid.
“My mum is very distressed about this. I’m her only child; we’re very close and we want to spend her last few years together.
“My wife and I will be looking after her in our home. I pay my taxes and I’m a good citizen. This makes me very angry.
“This is a country of law and democracy but this decision feels like it was made by a Soviet bureaucracy.”
The family’s solicitor, Katherine Smith, is now planning to start judicial review proceedings against the Home Office.
“The implications of an application being rejected as invalid are very drastic. It was harsh the Home Office wouldn’t accept the online application or allow time for a paper form to be completed. Elżbieta is now without legal status in the U.K. due to the delay in reaching this decision and is distressed by this,” she said.
Deportation statistics
In response, a Home Office spokesperson said: “It is our longstanding policy not to comment on individual cases.”
If Olszewska is deported, it would likely come under the category of enforced returns. There were just 8,164 cases in 2024, of whom 481 were Polish citizens, according to British Home Office statistics.
Most enforced deportations in 2024 involved nationals from Albania, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Brazil.
Albanian nationals, in particular, were heavily targeted due to high rates of asylum refusals and criminal convictions.
