Chess prodigy dubbed ‘the greatest talent in a generation’ faces being sent back to India when father’s visa runs out – as parent is told he must earn over £120,000-a-year to stay in UK
- Chess prodigy, Shreyas Royal is facing the prospect of leaving the country when his father’s visa expires
- Shreyas’s father needs to earn more than £120,000 a year to renew his Visa
- MPs including, Rachel Reeves and Matthew Pennycook have written to the Home Office to ask it to appeal the decision
A nine-year-old chess prodigy from India who has lived in the UK since he was three faces the prospect of having to leave the country when his father’s visa expires – prompting calls from MPs for the Home Office to intervene.
Shreyas Royal’s parents, Jitendra and Anju Singh, moved to south-east London from India in 2012 and have been living in the country under a tier 2 long-term work permit.
The only way Shreyas’s father could renew his Visa would be to earn more than £120,000 a year.
Chess prodigy, Shreyas Royal is facing the prospect of leaving the country when his father’s visa expires
The Guardian reported, the couple appealed to the Home Office, telling it that their son, who is attempting to become England’s first world chess champion, is a national asset.
However, this week they received a letter saying that although the nine-year-old showed ‘immense promise’ it doesn’t permit him to stay in the country.
Mr Singh said: ‘I was not expecting that kind of response,’ said his father.
‘[The Home Office] have a rule to allow exceptional talent here. They need people like my son in the UK. It is really shocking for us that the application and appeal was rejected.
‘It’s disappointing for us. My son is feeling very bad right now. He is playing at the British Championships at the moment. He feels bad and we have to console him.’
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MPs have urge the Home Office to reconsider its decision.
The Labour MPs Rachel Reeves, a former junior chess champion, and Matthew Pennycook, who represents Greenwich and Woolwich where Shreyas lives – have written to two cabinet ministers urging them to let the nine-year-old stay.
In a letter to Sajid Javid, the home secretary, Reeves and Pennycook said: ‘The only way Shreyas’s father would be eligible to renew his visa would be to earn more than £120,000 a year. As a result, despite his employer wishing him to continue working on his current projects, there is no mechanism for him to apply to remain in the UK. The family faces being forced to leave the only home Shreyas has ever known in less than two months’ time.’
They wrote a similar letter to Jeremy Wright, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport.
The young chess prodigy and his family have been told they have to leave by 10 September.
Shreyas, has been described as ‘the best prospect this country has ever seen’ by chess grandmaster and former British grandmaster Chris Ward
Shreyas started playing chess aged six and went on to becoming the world’s youngest ‘candidate master’.
In a letter responding to Dominic Lawson, of the English Chess Federation, who called for Shreyas to stay, Caroline Noakes, the minister for immigration, said: ‘Whilst Shreyas does show immense promise in the field of competitive chess I am afraid there is no route, within the rules, that will allow Mr Singh and his family to remain in the country.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Every visa case is assessed on its own merits in line with immigration rules.’
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