A British couple who have lived in Malta for 16 years are fighting for their right to stay after Identity Malta rejected their post-Brexit residency applications.

Diane Fox and her partner Stephen Lewis, both pensioners, have been living in Buġibba since 2006 but missed a deadline to apply for residence due to pandemic restrictions.

“Malta is our home,” Fox told Times of Malta. “We first visited 25 years ago and have built a life here since 2006. All our friends are in Malta,” she said.

British people living in Malta were given a window from October 2020 to June 2021 to apply for a new 10-year residency card under the terms of the EU/UK withdrawal agreement.

The couple missed the deadline because they were stuck in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When they eventually returned on July 8, they explained the circumstances to officials and went on to apply for residency.

However, their application was rejected by Identity Malta, despite evidence of cancelled flights and rent and bills for their Triq San Xmun home.

'Summer residence'

The agency said that aside from not providing evidence to justify their late application, they also did not prove “uninterrupted residence” in Malta prior to the end of the Brexit transition period in December 2020.

Identity Malta said the evidence instead “clearly” showed the couple had been using Malta as a summer residence.

The couple appealed their case to the Immigration Appeals Board, which ruled in their favour in May. Ruling that the couple had a valid reason to submit their late application, the Immigration Appeals board chastised Identity Malta for its lack of humanity.

“The human dimension must be kept at the forefront,” the board said.

“As one is speaking of the appellant [Fox] and her partner, who have clearly spent several years in Malta, one must not begrudge them a residence permit simply because they allegedly submitted a late application, allegedly without a good reason for doing so,” the decision read.

It said Identity Malta had made a “sweeping statement” by claiming the couple only lived in Malta during the summer, pointing to utility bills covering the winter months.

Identity Malta appeal

However, the couple’s ordeal has not ended there and Identity Malta is now taking the decision to the Court of Appeal.

They are also not alone.

Another Briton also submitted a late application which was rejected for similar reasons.

Chris R, who asked for his surname to be withheld, also submitted a late residency application because he could not fly back to Malta.

He explained to Identity Malta that he was nursing his mother back to health after she was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2020.

Restrictions due to the pandemic and his own ill health caused delays in his return.

Identity Malta said none of the reasons he gave justified his late application. It said he had not provided evidence to show he had been employed and living in Malta prior to the end of the transition period and that his absence exceeded the six-month period stipulated in EU law.

The Immigration Appeals Board also overturned Identity Malta’s decision, again criticising the agency for its attitude.

The board said it could not understand why Identity Malta was “fighting so hard to keep outside Malta an individual whose absence was not capricious, but due to his mother’s cancer” and other health reasons.

However, the Briton will also have his status decided in court after Identity Malta decided to appeal the Immigration Appeal Board decision.