FELIXSTOWE: A loving newly-married couple are today facing heartbreak and up to a year thousands of miles apart - after she was told to leave the country.

Richard Cornwell

FELIXSTOWE: A loving newly-married couple are today facing heartbreak and up to a year thousands of miles apart - after she was told to leave the country.

Amusement arcade worker Jeremy Langworthy and his wife Piyawadee Apisuk only wed because they say Home Office bosses approved their application to do so.

Now though - just four months later - she has been told she must go home to Thailand after her residency visa was refused. If she refuses to leave, she could be deported.

Mr Langworthy, 50, of Kentford Road, Felixstowe, said: “It's a nightmare - the immigration people tell me the only way we can stay together is if I leave the country with her.

“It is ridiculous because we were given permission to get married. We followed all the proper procedures and then they turn round and tell us Piyawadee has to leave.”

The couple met two years ago after Piyawadee, 30, who was studying English at a college in London, came to Felixstowe for a short stay to work at the Marlborough Hotel.

“I asked her to marry me, but she wanted to wait until she had finished her course in London,” said Mr Langworthy, who works for Family Amusements on Felixstowe seafront.

“We then applied for permission to marry, which was approved, and married on September 14. We then applied for her permanent visa. We never expected there to be a problem. It's just awful.”

A Border Agency spokesman confirmed the couple had been given permission to get married.

However, he said: “Mrs Langworthy's application to remain in the UK was refused because it was made late, three months after her student visa had run out and when she had no right to be in the UK.

“We made it clear that permission to marry did not entitle her to remain in the UK. All visa applications are considered on their merits and in accordance with the immigration rules, which are firm but fair and apply to everyone.”

Should Piyawadee be allowed to stay? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

KIRTON: The Langworthys are the second family from the Felixstowe area to suffer the nightmare of deportation in the past three months

In November, The Evening Star reported how James Rioux, 33, who had spent much of his life in Britain, was separated from his mother Jacqueline Giddens, of Kirton, and wife-to-be Michelle Lloyd.

He was sent back to his homeland America because he had been convicted of drink-driving there in 2005.

Despite the efforts of his family and Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer, he lost his battle for British citizenship and cannot apply again until his conviction is “considered spent” in 2012.