EXCLUSIVE
THE Home Office has been criticised for telling two Indian entrepreneurs hoping to stay in Scotland to contact unelected Westminster candidates for help rather than their local MSP because immigration is a reserved issue.
The SNP said the idea was "ridiculous" and "negligent" given unelected candidates have no democratic mandate or any special status in immigration matters.
The UK Visas and Immigration department (UKVI) made the statement after Maneesh Varshney and Vivek Kumar sought help from Nicola Sturgeon and SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald.
Varshney, who obtained a postgraduate degree from Edinburgh Napier in aquatic ecosystems management in 2010 and Kumar, who obtained a postgraduate finance degree from Dundee the same year, applied in 2013 for Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visas to set up a new business.
The visas, which allow holders to stay in the UK for up to five years, require applicants to have at least £50,000 in investment funds.
The two men are currently working on a business turning food waste into fish food.
However their applications were rejected and the appeals process exhausted.
The pair approached MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, and the First Minister for help and obtained letters of support from Scottish Enterprise for a fresh visa application.
But UKVI is now refusing to deal with MacDonald because he is a Holyrood politician.
"The Home Secretary takes the view that as immigration is a matter reserved for the Westminster Parliament, we should only engage with Westminster MPs in individual immigration cases," he was in an email told last week.
"If Mr Kumar or Mr Varshney require a response then, if they have not done so already, they can contact their Westminster parliamentary candidate during the current pre-election period."
Varshney said: "What's the point in going to an unelected candidate? Even if they give us their support, what guarantee is there the Home Office will listen to them?"
MacDonald said: "This is a ridiculous position for the Home Office to take - advising people to seek advice on immigration from unelected candidates.
"It speaks volumes about the total lack of respect that the Westminster system has for the Scottish Parliament that they would rather pass on issues of this nature to unelected people with no jurisdiction over anything, rather than MSPs who have been democratically elected."
The Home Office declined to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article