I have a rare illness of the spine that prevents me from bowing before the powerful.
-Gustavo de Greiff, the first Attorney-General of Colombia
In 2016, the Isle of Man immigration department refused to renew my visa — and would not even meet with me to discuss it. I had created an innovative structure to extend my stay there, secured support from economic development officials and even had a lawyer’s blessing. But unfortunately, the Immigration officials proper turned me down flat! Fortunately, I had a right of appeal.
The courts there are pretty swift so, over a few months, I launched 3 lawsuits and won. I even got some damages, which I donated to the local food bank. The next year, I wanted to go for permanent residency, called Indefinite Leave to Remain ("ILR") in the UK context. (The Isle of Man is a British Crown dependency between England and Ireland. It shares a common immigration system and travel area with the UK). Unfortunately, the Immigration people were sore losers and changed the rules so that someone using my structure (where I owned more than 10% of my employer) could not get ILR. I had learned a lot by then about public law and knew they could not change laws like that and had to grand-father me, due to the doctrine of "legitimate expectation". I now had a new fight on my hands. But I’d had enough of court, so I decided to escalate beyond it.