Help Yemi & family get their Graduate Visa to keep working

My name is Millie. I am fundraising on behalf of Yemi Balogun.

Yemi came to the UK in 2023 from Nigeria to study for his second Masters degree in Global Development Studies at the University of East Anglia and to build a better life for his family. Yemi had already obtained two degrees in Nigeria and had never left the country or been on a plane before arriving in the UK.

Yemi has worked throughout his degree and successfully completed his course in September 2024.

To fund their move to the UK, Yemi and his wife Ayomide have been selling up everything in Nigeria to pay for the student fees and their lives here with their (then) two children. But the currency in Nigeria has been crashing ever more severely over the past year, and while Yemi was studying he was only allowed to work 20 hours per week. On top of this, his wife unexpectedly fell pregnant and experienced complications which prevented her from working.

Since completing his studies in September, Yemi has been allowed to work as many hours as he would like, as the 20-hour cap was removed. So he has been working two jobs, both in care work. In one job he cares for adults, and in the other he cares for children. He works night shifts and day shifts. Ayomide gave birth 3 months ago to a healthy baby girl, Jemimah.

Because of the currency crash and his wife's condition, Yemi still had outstanding debt on his student fees. His total fees for the course were £19,800. Yemi paid £6994 of this while working during his studies, and he has been paying £1600 per month since November (while working full time), leaving a remaining £8006 to pay.

Yemi's Student Visa expires this Saturday, 25th of January 2025. In order to continue working, providing for his family and paying off his student fees, Yemi must apply for a Graduate Visa by the this Saturday, 25th January 2025 at 4pm.

To apply for his Graduate Visa he must

1) have successfully completed his academic studies (which he has done)

2) have less than £1000 outstanding on his student fee balance to the University, before the University will send confirmation of his successful completion of studies to the Home Office.

After a heroic effort from Yemi, Ayomide, University Sanctuary support workers Madi Dutton and Sophie North, an incredible immigration lawyer Bob Parsons, along with countless members of Yemi and Ayomedi's network of friends and family and some of my own, we managed to raise, in less that 24 hours, the £7006 we needed to pay the University. We made that payment this afternoon (24th January 2025) at 3:45pm and received from the Visa Team a confirmation email of successful completion of studies had been sent to the Home Office.

This was monumental. Yemi and I were ecstatic. He was so full of joy and gratitude, and he said he had been brought back from the brink.

Yemi can now apply for his Graduate Visa for his family. Bob Parsons, the incredible immigration lawyer and advisor, offered his unbounded support for free on this case, because he was so aghast at the brutality of the University's policies and because he has extensive experience working with student visa issues. Bob calculated for us that the visa application cost for Yemi, his wife and their three children will be £12,906.

Yemi had saved as much money as he could whilst making the repayments and providing for his family, so he had £4180, the last of his own money, ready for the application.

Yemi MUST make the full Graduate Visa application, with the full £12,906 payment, for his whole family before the end of the day this Saturday 25th January 2025. If Yemi does not do this, he and his family will have overstayed their visa and be in the UK illegally. This will mean Yemi and his wife cannot work, they cannot repay the money we raised today from friends and family, and their lives will be upended. They do not have anything to return to in Nigeria.

Bob Parsons is helping us complete all the Visa paperwork, giving hours of his time for free tomorrow, but he will need us to have the application money in full by 4PM 25TH JANUARY 2025.

To be utterly clear: all the money we raised today will be paid back by Yemi to everyone who gave. He can continue making £1600 monthly payments to all and any who have supported him. He has his two jobs (which will be terminated tomorrow if he cannot get his visa application submitted).

Again, the full cost of the Visa is £12,906, and Yemi has £4180 of this already. So we must raise the remaining £8726 for the visa application by 4pm tomorrow (Saturday 25th January 2025) in order to give Yemi and his family the chance they so desperately deserve.

This money is a loan. If we can raise the final £8726, Yemi will owe £16,732 in total, which, at payments of £1600/month he can pay back within 12 months.

I have seen all of Yemi's bank statements, his personal details and worked with him nonstop over the last two days. This man is strong, intelligent, capable and beautiful. I vouch for him entirely. I have watched him pull himself away from the edge and fight with everything he has got for his family.

Please can you give whatever money you have as a gift or loan (repayment dates can be agreed with you if you contact us) to Yemi and his family today. We need £8720 by 4pm 25th January.

Anything you may be able to give is so gratefully received by all of us working on this to support Yemi and his family and of course by them.

With deepest love, respect and humanity,

Millie and Yemi