Doctor who feared having to leave UK over visa issue wins Home Office U-turn

A Pakistani doctor who feared he would have to quit his job at an east London GP practice is celebrating after the Home Office reversed a decision that would have separated him from his family.

On Monday morning, The Guardian reported on the case of Tajwer Siddiqui, 59, and his wife, Shehlar Tajwer, 50, who were granted visas to come to the UK while their daughter, Alina Tajwer Siddiqui, 19, was not.

Their daughter was unable to live independently because of her autism and needed her parents to care for her, the couple said. But the Home Office initially refused her a visa to come to the UK, saying she was over 18 and her parents had failed to demonstrate “compassionate or compelling circumstances” that would have justified officials granting her permission.

In a rejection letter dated August 29, 2024, the Interior Ministry official said that the decision to separate Alina from her parents not only failed to meet the test of “compassionate and compelling reasons,” but also did not meet the threshold of “unjustifiably harsh consequences.”

But after the article about the case was published, a Home Office spokesperson told the Guardian: “We have reviewed this case and are in contact with the family to let them know what their next steps are. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Siddiqui said: “I am at a loss for words, I am so happy with the change of heart from the Home Office. Alina can no longer go out on her own and psychologically she is very attached to us. We did not have the courage to tell her that her visa had been refused. We are so relieved and my daughter will be very grateful.”

Siddiqui worked in medicine for decades in his native Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia before successfully applying to the Home Office for a highly skilled worker visa, which allowed him to work at an NHS GP practice in Ilford, east London, called Doctor’s House.

The GP practice sponsors his visa and he began working there on July 1 as a GP assistant until he takes an exam known as PLAB – a Professional Linguistics Assessment Board test – which all overseas-qualified doctors must pass before being allowed to practice as a doctor in the UK.

The practice’s managing director, Ikram Khan, said Siddiqui has been a great asset to the practice’s patients since he started working there.

Siddiqui’s wife is also a qualified GP and hopes to work as a doctor in the UK. She has been granted a visa to come here to work as a dependent of her husband.