FELIXSTOWE: A second Felixstowe couple have received good news – with the immigration services allowing them to stay together.

Mandy Dickerson and her Moroccan husband Badr El Menbaoui were allowed to marry, but faced an anxious wait to see if he would be permitted to settle and work in the UK.

Now they have been told “yes” – and are absolutely thrilled.

Their joy follows the good news received last month by husband and wife, amusement arcade worker Jeremy Langworthy, 50, and student Piyawadee Apisuk, 30, who spent eight months apart after she was deported but have now been told she can return to live in the UK.

Mrs El Menbaoui, of Avocet Court, off Langer Road, Felixstowe, said she and Badr were “absolutely thrilled”.

“It’s a real happy ending to our story,” she said.

“Badr was desperate to work but until we got the visa confirmed he just had to sit around at home all day – and that was so frustrating for him.

“He wanted to work and be part of the community and have a real life here in England.

“We are just so happy now and so settled.”

Badr, 32, has found a job as a welder at Ransomes Jacobsen, in Ipswich.

Mrs El Menbaoui, 44, who works in accounts for the Mediterranean Shipping Company, in Ipswich, said in two years’ time he can apply for indefinite leave to remain in this country and there will be further forms to fill in and the national test of Britishness to take.

The pair met on the dating website www.tagged.com in May last year and their relationship clicked immediately.

Mr and Mrs Langworthy, of Kentford Road, Felixstowe, were told by officials that they could marry but she was then deported to her homeland of Thailand because her visitor visa expired.

They appealed and just before the hearing last month she was given the all-clear to return and a two-year residency card.

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