A family are celebrating after winning their appeal against an immigration ruling that threatened to tear them apart.

Mark Harper faced a lengthy separation from his Canadian wife Deanna when the Home Office refused to extend her UK visa and threatened to remove her from the country.

The couple, of Birkenshaw, Bradford, had met over the internet in July 2007 and got engaged five months later.

They appealed against the devastating decision and have now been given the news they craved.

Mrs Harper said: “We are excited and relieved. They decided they didn’t want to separate the family because the disruption would have been too big.

“It is great to know that we are finally safe. Everyone has been really supportive. We would like to thank the community, the Telegraph & Argus and our immigration solicitor, Barry Clark, for everything they have done.”

Mrs Harper became pregnant while visiting Mark in England on a six-month temporary visa in 2008 and the couple got married.

But 11 months after their daughter Elianna was born, Mrs Harper heard that her bid to extend her UK visa had been refused on the grounds that her circumstances were “not compassionate or compelling enough” for the Secretary of State to rule in her favour.

Mrs Harper said she would then have had to wait at her parents’ home in Winnipeg, in central Canada, for at least three months while her application to return to the UK was processed, during which time she and her daughter would be away from Mr Harper. The couple’s appeal was heard at an immigration appeal hearing two weeks ago.