Ghanaian tourist allowed to live in Britain under Brexit marriage rules even though she did not attend her wedding
14 February 2025, 09:08 | Updated: 14 February 2025, 09:34
A Ghanaian tourist was granted the right to live in Britain even though she didn’t attend her own wedding.
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Francisca Boateng, 42, won an immigration appeal after claiming that her ‘proxy’ marriage to a German citizen living in Britain had lasted long enough for her to qualify to remain.
She met Fatao Sualihu, a German citizen, before returning home to divorce her then husband, the Telegraph reports.
She organised a ‘proxy’ wedding in Ghana in December 2018 that neither she nor her new husband attended.
She moved to the UK to join her new husband, but the marriage broke down and they divorced in January 2022.
Read more: Albanian criminal’s deportation halted because son doesn't like foreign chicken nuggets
Because the marriage lasted three years from the date of the proxy wedding, she was entitled to claim UK residency under the terms of the Brexit deal’s EU settlement scheme - because her husband was eligible for settled status.
It is the latest example of migrants gaining the right to remain or avoiding deportation in controversial circumstances.
It comes after the case of a Nigerian woman who tried eight times to secure asylum in Britain - before she was finally granted the right to stay after joining a terrorist organisation just to boost her claim.
In another example, an Albanian criminal avoided deportation because his son didn’t like foreign chicken nuggets.
Another tribunal decision allowed a Palestinian family to come and live in the UK after they applied through a scheme for Ukrainian refugees.
