TURRE, Spain \u2013 Daniel Northover left his home in Liverpool this month, which marks the 10th anniversary of Britain\u2019s Brexit referendum, to move in with his 80-year-old mother in Turre, a town of 4,500 people in Andalusia in southern Spain.<\/p>\n
After his stepfather died last summer, Northover, 53, has taken turns with his sister to travel back and forth to Spain to care for his mother, \u200bCarole, who cannot cook, clean or dress by herself after suffering several strokes.<\/p>\n
But with non-EU residents only allowed to remain in \u200cthe bloc for \u200c90 days in every 180 without a visa, he said it had become unsustainable. A project manager for \u200blocal councils and charities, Northover did not meet the requirements for a working visa. Visas to care for a dependent family member are only available if it is the U.K. citizen needing the care.<\/p>\n
A senior European Commission official said cases where the absence of a family member \u2060providing care would force the elderly beneficiary of the Withdrawal Agreement to leave the host state were evaluated on merit. Otherwise, general migration rules applied.<\/p>\n
Northover\u2019s sister\u2019s application for \u2060a family reunification visa was rejected.<\/p>\n
That left Northover and his partner with no choice but to sell their house to raise the funds for what is called a\u00a0\u201cnonlucrative\u201d visa \u2014 which bars them from working \u2014 and become full-time carers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way the (Brexit) withdrawal agreement was \u200bwritten means we\u2019ve had to give up our lives \u2060and careers,\u201d Northover said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe agreement was terrible. They didn\u2019t think it through,\u201d said Carole, waving her fist in anger as she sat in her wheelchair in the Spanish sun next to her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so \u2060ashamed I\u2019ve caused (my children)\u00a0this \u200bstress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northover\u2019s situation mirrors that of tens of thousands of families of British retirees \u200bin Spain scrambling to find ways to care for their infirm parents abroad.<\/p>\n