An Australian family who have been fighting deportation from the Scottish Highlands since April have described themselves as “over the moon” after learning they have been granted leave to remain in the UK.

Gregg and Kathryn Brain and their seven-year-old son, Lachlan, became ensnared in a tortuous battle with immigration bureaucracy after the post-study work visa scheme that initially attracted them to Scotland was retrospectively cancelled by the UK government.

They were informed by their solicitor on Tuesday afternoon that the Home Office had granted them leave to remain in the UK, after Kathryn secured a job offer with a hotel group that satisfied visa requirements.

Gregg Brain said the decision had lifted an enormous weight off his shoulders. “For months and months we’ve not been able to tell our son where he’d be living. The stress of walking the razor’s edge has been huge and to have it lifted is just wonderful,” he said.

The family, originally from Brisbane, came to Scotland in 2011 on Kathryn’s student visa, while she took a course in Scottish history at the University of the Highlands and Islands. They then intended to move on to a two-year, post-study work visa after she had completed her course. But the Home Office cancelled that scheme in 2012, citing widespread abuse, forcing them to later apply for the far more stringent tier 2 visa.

After a series of eleventh-hour interventions from politicians including the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and a flurry of job offers following the publicity around the case that frustratingly failed to meet the strict work visa criteria, the Brains were told in August that the Home Office had begun the deportation process.

But Kathryn has now been employed as a curator for the Aviemore visitors’ centre of the Macdonald Hotels and Resorts group. Her husband described it as a “dream job”, given her enthusiasm for Scottish history. He added that Lachlan had been more phlegmatic about the news: “He’s taken it in his stride, and says that he wants to get a trampoline for the back yard.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...o-remain-in-uk