schema:articleBody
| - Britain's interior ministry said Friday it was helping a French Michelin-starred chef who was refused permission to remain in the UK permanently after Brexit despite living there for 23 years. The ministry said Claude Bosi, who runs the upmarket restaurant Bibendum in Chelsea, southwest London, had not applied for its settlement scheme designed for EU citizens post-Brexit. Instead, he had made an application for permanent residency which was rejected "because he did not provide sufficient evidence to show he met the criteria," it added. "We have spoken to him to help him to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme," a spokeswoman for the ministry said in a statement. "He made an application for a permanent residence document -- something which EU citizens living in the UK are not required or encouraged to do." Earlier Friday, an aggrieved Bosi posted on Instagram a letter from the interior ministry detailing its refusal to grant him permanent residency. "I love Britain I considered until today like home but they just told me after 23 years of tax paid /VAT paid I'm not welcome anymore," he wrote. Bosi later told AFP he was unconvinced by the government's system for EU citizens. "I am lucky to have a little notoriety, but for people who do not have notoriety and are in the same situation as me, it is a nightmare," he said, speaking in French. The renowned chef arrived in Britain in 1997, opening the award-winning restaurant Hibiscus in the West Midlands in 2000. He took over Bibendum -- which holds two Michelin stars from the famous French gastronomic guide -- in March, 2017. Bosi's wife is English and the couple have two children, aged 14 and five, who are British citizens. Britain will leave the European Union next Friday, and has vowed that all the bloc's nationals living in the country when it leaves can stay. But they have to register through an online "settlement scheme" which requires evidence of how long they have been there. EU citizens able to show they have lived in the country for more than five years will be granted "settled status", letting them remain indefinitely. jj/jwp/pvh
|