Key facts
- Comfort, 67, arrived in the UK in 2000 and went blind shortly afterward from acute glaucoma, per the report.
- She was granted leave to remain under long residence rules in 2022, requiring visa renewals every 30 months for 10 years.
- Refugee and Migrant Justice applied for immediate indefinite leave to remain on the basis of her age and disability, but the Home Office rejected it.
- The refusal letter said she could return to Nigeria and concluded her circumstances were not severe enough to warrant indefinite leave to remain in India.
- Home Office sources said corrective action was being taken to re-issue an updated letter, per the report.
- The report cites FOI data showing a 103-year-old woman from Pakistan would not be eligible for settlement until age 123.
The Home Office told a blind Nigerian pensioner who has lived in the UK for 26 years that she could return to Nigeria, but the refusal letter concluded that her circumstances did not warrant indefinite leave to remain because of a lack of treatment in India, The Guardian reported on November 14, 2026.
The woman, identified in the report as Comfort, 67, arrived in the UK in 2000 and went blind shortly afterward because of acute glaucoma. She was granted leave to remain under long residence rules in 2022. Under those rules, she must renew her visa every 30 months for 10 years before she can apply for indefinite leave to remain.
The report says the new settlement rules announced by Shabana Mahmood this week are likely to require her to keep renewing her visa for 20 more years, until she is in her 80s, before she becomes eligible for indefinite leave to remain.
Lawyers at Refugee and Migrant Justice applied to the Home Office for her to be granted indefinite leave to remain now rather than wait, citing a provision to fast-track applications in exceptional circumstances. The Home Office rejected the application.
The report quotes Comfort as saying: "I don't know why the Home Office said I could go back to India. It's a country I have never visited and have no connection with."
The report says Home Office sources said corrective action was being taken to re-issue an updated letter to the woman. A Home Office spokesperson said: "We do not routinely comment on individual cases. All applications for permission to stay in the UK are carefully considered on their individual merits, in line with the immigration rules and based on the information and evidence provided by the applicant."
The report also cites freedom of information data obtained by Refugee and Migrant Justice indicating that many people of pensionable age have applied for settlement but are likely to die before satisfying the new wait times, including a woman from Pakistan aged 103 who will not be eligible until she is 123.