Immigration row: US woman fights to stay in Malvern with man she loves

US citizen Karen Officer is a carer for her British-born husband Bruce who has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism which can make communication and everyday situations difficult.

The couple live together in Malvern and are fighting to let her stay in the town after the Home Office refused her application to remain here. They claim the Government has refused to acknowledge his condition as an extenuating reason for her to stay despite his Asperger's being what she calls a 'pervasive, life-long disability which has no cure'.

Both Mrs and Mrs Officer say he would struggle to cope without her help and support. Their view is shared by social worker Mandy Shrimpton of Rainbow Autism, a professional assessment and support service who acts as an advocate for the couple.

The couple applied for her to be able to stay in the UK at the start of January 2012 but her application was rejected in the autumn of 2013.

Despite this the couple married in Arbroath Abbey in Scotland in September last year. Mrs Office, originally from Virginia in the US, said they loved each other and wanted to get married and while their parents were still alive.

They also argue that they could not relocate to the US. Her husband owns his own home here and would struggle to cope with the change because of his Asperger’s Syndrome.

He also has a 20-year-old son with classic autism who lives in Scotland and feels he could not leave him to go to the States.

Mr Officer, aged 46, who works as an engineer in Droitwich relies on the support and help of his 51-year-old wife to cope with everyday situations.

Mr Officer said in a letter to West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin: : “My wife is in limbo here in the UK, unable to work, unable to travel back to the USA to visit her relatives and constantly in fear if being detained and deported. This is placing a great strain upon both of us.”

He said: “I am told that under human rights I have a right to a family life but I do not know how to get people to see that choosing between my wife and my son would wreck my family life.”

The family solicitor wrote to the Home Office at the start of the year, asking them to either reconsider the case and give Mrs Officer leave to remain or issue a notice for her to leave.

Mr Officer says his wife is classed as an “over-stayer” by the Home Office.

Mrs Officer said: “After I informed the Home Office of my intentions (to stay), I began to receive text messages, hostile letters, and harassing phone calls from a company the Home Office had hired to remove “illegal immigrants”. This was highly stressful, not only for me, but also for my husband as I am his carer as well as his wife, and because of his condition his anxieties were exacerbated.”

West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin wrote to Mr Officer in February and said: “I am afraid I cannot overrule the advice of the Home Office. You will be aware that Immigration Law has been tightened up over the last two years and there are strict rules around Leave to Remain and Spousal applications.”

In a separate statement Mrs Baldwin said: “It is standard policy for me to protect the confidentiality of casework and I don’t comment on individual cases.

“However, I and my casework team handle thousands of constituents’ problems every year, including hundreds of immigration queries, and I can help to get a swift response on current immigration law from the Home Office.

“I always advise constituents who need expert immigration legal help to contact the specialist Citizens Advice Bureau team in Birmingham.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “All applications are considered on their individual merits and in accordance with the immigration rules.

“This case is ongoing and so it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

An immigration tribunal is set to take place in Birmingham on October 23.

In the meantime she has set up a petition for her husband to stay: www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/american-wife-carer-uk-citizen-with-aspergers