A COACH driver is isolated 7,000 miles apart from his wife – because he does not earn enough for her to return to Britain.
Ian Crabb married his Filipino bride Doricel in 2009 in her home town, following a drawn-out wrangle over her visa.
She came here three months later to live with him in Bletchingley.
They settled down in his flat in Barfields, and his new wife then earned a living locally as a carer in a nursing home.
But two years ago, 29-year-old Doricel went back to the Philippines for a while, to support her sister with her new baby, and now she finds she can't return here due to her husband's low income.
British Embassy officials in the Philippines said her application for a visa renewal has been rejected because "your sponsor needs to show either that he earns the equivalent of £18,600 per annum or he has savings in excess of £62,500."
An incredulous Mr Crabb, 59, said: "It's crazy.
"Rich people can get their wives back but poorer people can't.
"I just want my wife back.
"We haven't seen each other for two years."
Mr Crabb said he had to downsize from his former job as a full-time bus driver due to ill health.
He nearly died after suffering a blood clot in the lungs.
He added: "Must I put my life in jeopardy by working much longer hours just to have my wife back again?"
Mr Crabb said keeping in touch with Doricel by mobile phone every day was costing him a small fortune.
The couple first began a courtship over the internet in 2006.
Mr Crabb recalled: "We found we could make each other laugh.
"When I saw her photographs it was love at first sight. Since then I called her 'My Butterfly'."
Helena Windsor, Surrey county council's UKIP member for Godstone ward, said of Mr Crabb's plight: "This really annoys me. Doricel is married to a British man and contributed to our economy in her time here.
"This Government is supposed to support marriage. Shouldn't we be supporting them?"
A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed that family immigration rules require a British citizen to have a minimum income of £18,600 in order to sponsor their non-European Economic Area partner to settle here.
She added: "Until a legal challenge to this requirement is determined – which may take some months – we have put on hold applications that could be refused solely on income threshold grounds."
The European Economic Area comprises the 27 European Union countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
