AFTER a 15 month battle over red-tape Mark Goddard seems set to be re-united with his wife. He has been told that an appeal has given the go-ahead for his wife Stephanie to eventually leave Jamaica and start her married life. The couple have been living

AFTER a 15 month battle over red-tape Mark Goddard seems set to be re-united with his wife.

He has been told that an appeal has given the go-ahead for his wife Stephanie to eventually leave Jamaica and start her married life.

The couple have been living thousands of miles apart for more than a year.

But paperwork confirming the outcome of a hearing at an Immigration Tribunal in central London still needs to be rubber-stamped in Jamaica.

This was sent to the Jamaica last week, but it may still take some time while it is passed through the bureaucratic machine.

Speaking from his parents home in Leete Place, Royston, Mark, 42, said: "After all this time it is a crumb of consolation.

"I do not mean to be cynical, but I will not believe it until I've actually been told that everything is in order."

Although Judge J R McVittie allowed the appeal in February, the paperwork appeared to have been delayed in its transfer to Jamaica.

"I've been calling the Home Office from the time of the appeal, but it would not say anything about the case or whether the papers had been sent to Jamaica," said Mark.

Royston's MP Oliver Heald, however, spoke to the visa department at the Home Office this week and was assured that the documentation had been sent to Jamaica.

The appeal means that Stephanie can return and remain in the UK - 15 months after she and Mark were married in the West Indies.

Mark, who attended The Meridian School, Royston, has become the leading Elvis Presley tribute act in the country.

Over the past year he has had to restrict himself on seeing his wife because of the travel costs.

"It's been hard," he said. "All we wanted to do was have a married life and be together. We didn't expect any of this."

The saga began after Mark and Stephanie had been on honeymoon. She applied to have her visa re-newed, but after months of processing the request it was turned down.

This was despite the fact that she had attended a college in England and was working here when she met Mark.

A Home Office spokesman told The Crow that it would not discuss an individual case.