Barnard Castle family tell of visa heartbreak as son is left ‘stranded’ in India

A BARNARD Castle couple who run a town pub have made an emotional plea to immigration officials to reunite their family by allowing their son to come “home” .
Old Well Inn publicans Roy and Rima Chatterjee moved to Barnard Castle in 2015 on an entrepreneur visa. They were allowed to bring their younger son, Aaryav, but his older sibling, Aayush, could not be put on the same visa because he had turned 18 just one month before.
Roy, Rima and Aaryav are now British citizens and run the family business and play an active role in the community.
But Aayush is “stranded” in India, separated from his loved ones and says he feels like a “refugee” .
Despite repeated requests to ministers and intervention by MP Dehenna Davison, the Government has refused to reunite the Chatterjees.
Roy said: “We are not growing any younger and we have sold everything to commit to living here. We own nothing in India. We want Aayush to live here and help run the family business. His family is here and his home is here.
“Facebook always pops up ‘memories’ and they are of us when we were a family – it’s so painful.
“We just want them to show some compassion – his only fault was that he had just turned 18. His birthday was in October and we were granted our visas in November.”
When the Chatterjees moved to Barnard Castle, Aayush attended Newcastle University as an international student to study media and journalism.
Rima said: “When he graduated in 2019, we were quite sure we would be able to employ him in the family business as a director, but we were told we could not because he was our son.”
It meant he had to go back to India to live with Rima’s elderly parents, but the family say India isn’t his home.
The Chatterjees had moved to Barnard Castle from Nigera, where their children had spent most of their young lives due to Roy’s job there.
Rima said: “When he had to go to India, he had been out of the country for his formative years. The job opportunities, work culture and lifestyle in India are alien. It’s so painful – you feel bad all the time.”
The family appealed for help from MP Dehenna Davision, who took up the case.
She met the immigration minister but her campaign hit a brick wall. Rima said: “She has been trying and trying which gives us hope but the final official response was that he needed to be skilled labour or have an offer of a graduate level job, but we couldn’t offer that because he is our son.”
Roy added: “Britain wants to help people – we have seen it happen with Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. We ourselves are helping people from Ukraine in our community but we can’t do it with our own flesh and blood.
“He is just short of being a refugee – I hate to use that word but it’s how he feels.”
The couple point out they were allowed to bring their two dogs – Zara and Bianca – to live with them but not their son.
While he was studying at Newcastle University, Aayush had made friends in town, they say.
Rima said: “Regulars in the pub often say, ‘What’s happened to Aayush?’ People can’t fathom how we can’t have our son here.
“We know rules have to be in place because people misuse the system but there are genuine people like us. We are not looking for loopholes.”
They say running the pub on their own is getting harder and they struggle to take a break. Their eldest son’s support with the business would make a big difference, they say.
“But we have not given up. We can’t give up. If you do, there is no hope,” Rima said.
MP Kevin Foster, the minister for safe and legal migration, wrote to MP Dehenna Davison on July 25 after the pair met to discuss the
case. Mr Foster said he could not comment on individual cases but people over 18 have to qualify in their own right under the migration system. Only in “very limited situations” are adult descendants allowed to join a family, he said.
He added: “While not relevant to Mr Chatterjee, we have since opened an international graduate route, allowing graduates to remain here for two years to undertake employment and switch into longer-term work routes.”
Mr Foster said he could still apply for a visa if an approved employment sponsor offered him a “qualifying job” with a general salary threshold of £25,600.