‘I live in a care home after three strokes – new visa rules mean I’ll be in my 80s before I’ll know if I can stay in UK’

James Adebisi had just finished a day’s work as a kitchen porter and was walking towards Oxford Circus for the journey home when his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the ground.

Unable to speak due to his stroke, a passerby called an ambulance for Mr Adebisi and he was taken to hospital.

While receiving treatment at University College London Hospital, staff became aware that Mr Adebisi, a Nigerian national, was an immigrant who had been living and working undocumented in the UK for nearly 20 years.

Since that day in 2023, Mr Adebisi, 56, has been granted a temporary UK visa on privacy grounds given the two decades he has lived there, but has been refused permanent residence.

Now he faces an agonizing 30-year wait to find out whether he can stay there indefinitely under new rules to be introduced by Shabana Mahmood – by which time he will be in his mid-80s.

But even before that, Mr Adebisi, who has no family in the UK and now lives in a care home in Essex after two strokes, requiring 24-hour care due to reduced mobility, speech problems and information processing problems, will potentially have to reapply for his temporary visa 12 times over the next three decades.

Care workers warn that the risk of not presenting in time is very high because the patient needs support with basic activities such as remembering to take medication and cannot go out without help.

Charities fear much more vulnerable foreign nationals like Mr Adebisi could be affected by the home secretary’s visa changes, forcing them to live in visa limbo for decades.

Mr Adebisi told Independent: “I’m worried. I trust God, he’s my only hope.”

Under the changes, Ms Mahmood promised to increase the length of time foreign nationals must live in the UK before applying for permanent settlement. The “basic” qualifying period for an indefinite residence permit has been increased to 10 years; However, this increases to 20 years if the person has claimed benefits, and to 30 years if the person entered the UK illegally for the first time, such as Mr Adebisi, who arrived by ferry from Belgium in 2006.

About 2.2 million people with temporary visas were on the path to settlement by the end of 2024, according to analysis by the Migration Observatory, but some will leave the country without applying to stay permanently.

The Home Office predicts 1.6 million people will receive indefinite leave to remain between 2026 and 2030 under current rules, and ministers say changes are necessary to reduce the number of visas issued.

In a speech earlier this year, Ms Mahmood said it was “vital that the privilege of living in this country is earned not automatically but for good”, adding that the changes were “not a betrayal of Labor values” but rather “an embodiment of them”.

Louisa Thomas, director of social work at Refugee and Immigrant Justice, an immigrant rights charity that helped Mr Adebisi with his initial application, warned: “For people who are elderly or seriously ill, forcing them to spend 20 or even 30 years renewing their immigration status is not only unrealistic, but cruel and self-defeating.

“We routinely see people with clear care needs, supported by medical evidence and support from local authorities, still being refused settlement and thrust into complex visa renewal cycles that they cannot even hope to manage. It is difficult to see who benefits from this approach.”

Sitting in an armchair with the Zimmer frame next to him in his room at the Essex care home, Mr Adebisi, who had to relearn how to walk and talk after repeated strokes, said: “When I came here I couldn’t even get out of bed. They help me get out with the help of the nurses. Now I can only try to get out of bed with the help of the Zimmer frame. I can’t get around on my own.”

“God has protected me until today. People at the church call me from time to time. I have two children, one in Romania and one in America. I have no one else to take care of me.”

Charity Refugee and Migrant Justice are also supporting another woman, a 68-year-old woman who came to the UK on a visitor visa in 2006. He was homeless, had been couch surfing with different families for 15 years, and had serious mental health problems, including debilitating auditory hallucinations.

He will be almost 100 years old before he can apply for permanent settlement, under the home secretary’s changes, as his first visit visa has expired and he is dependent on public funds.

The charity said he faced having to constantly renew his visa every 30 months, despite medical evidence and statements from social workers that he was unable to carry out tasks on his own.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We will always welcome those who come to this country and contribute to our national life. But the privilege of living here forever must be earned, not automatic.”

“As part of the won settlement consultation, we asked how flexibility or safeguards could be built in to protect vulnerable groups.”