An 86-year-old Dutch woman claims she is being forced to go to London to renew her passport so she can stay in the UK after Brexit — despite suffering from cancer and being bed-bound in hospital.
Paul Brain, 74, and his wife Sonja, who is unable to walk, have been married for 43 years and the pair have lived at their home in Loughor near Swansea for almost three decades.
A Government app allows EU nationals to apply for settled status but the couple claims the app will not accept her application because they have not submitted a pdf of a valid e-passport to confirm Sonja's nationality.
Sonja's e-passport, which was valid for three years, has recently expired.
The pair say they now face having to travel to a Netherlands embassy for an appointment in either London or Edinburgh to renew the passport but say getting to London will be extremely difficult due to her poor health.
However, the Home Office refute the claims and say there is no requirement to apply with a biometric passport [e-passport].
Sonja moved to the UK 59-years-ago and has spent her entire working life in the UK and raised her four British children.
She never applied for British citizenship because the Netherlands does not allow dual nationality, Wales Online reports .
More than 3.5million EU citizens in the UK will have to use the EU Settlement Scheme if they want to stay beyond June 2021.
Mr Brain, who is an emeritus professor of Bioscience at Swansea University said: “She now has a variety of medical problems including cancer, mobility problems and macular degeneration.
"This is a combination so severe that she couldn’t travel to her sister’s funeral in Rotterdam.
“At the height of these problems, we discovered that her passport had lapsed (they are only valid for three years).
“The only way for us to get a replacement passport is for my wife to personally travel to a Netherlands embassy for an appointment in either London or Edinburgh which are both very remote from our South Wales home.
"The embassy can only issue ID cards (non-biometric) by post and these are not acceptable to the app.”
“She has four British children. There are all in work and paying taxes. She also has six grandchildren. She has no family left in Holland apart from her 90-year-old brother in law.
“In the 59 years she has never had her passport lapse. She used to be able to go to Cowbridge [town in Wales to get it done]."
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