Couple beat immigration red tape to tie the knot

ALL the bride's family had bought their tickets to fly from the United States and the grand setting of Hopetoun House had been booked for months.

There was only one hitch – the US-born bride Kasey Lowe needed her paperwork rubber-stamped by immigration officials before the wedding could go ahead.

They waited for three months for the essential certificate of approval for her marriage to Hamish McCall Smith, 44, to come through – but in vain. Endless phonecalls and letters left them no further forward. It was only days before they were due to tie the knot that the Haymarket couple e-mailed their local MP in desperation.

Within 36 hours, John Barrett, the Edinburgh West MP, had cut through the red tape and saved the day. The Liberal Democrat, who is standing down after the upcoming election, is now set to be the guest of honour at their wedding.

Miss Lowe, who is originally from Arkansas and met her husband after moving to Edinburgh to study, said: "It was very frustrating, the difficult part was the agency wouldn't answer any of our questions about the application. We had 130 guests coming to the wedding, including 40 overseas guests – my entire family is here.

"But within 36 hours of contacting John, it was all resolved. The agency never gave us a reason for the delay."

The couple have since received the certificate of approval and both passports in the post from the UK Border Agency.

In desperation, the couple had decided that if the certificate had not arrived in time for tomorrow's wedding they would have gone ahead with the humanist ceremony anyway, without informing their guests that it wasn't actually a legal marriage. They would then have had to hold a smaller – and legal – ceremony to resolve things.

Miss Lowe met Mr McCall Smith, a financial controller for the Scottish Community Foundation charity and a second cousin of Edinburgh author Alexander McCall Smith, at a friend's dinner party in Edinburgh.

Miss Lowe, who moved to the Capital three years ago and studies at Edinburgh University, said: "We are completely relieved. John made it all possible so we are absolutely thrilled. He was amazing."

Mr Barrett, who will meet the couple for the first time at the wedding, said: "I was absolutely over the moon to be invited to the wedding, I didn't expect it. The wedding will probably be my last official function as an MP – I'm standing down at the general election – so it will be a nice way to end it all.

"I have probably dealt with about 10,000 individual cases in my time as an MP, but when you can save somebody's wedding day like this, it will be a memory that sticks with me as well."

Miss Lowe added: "I can't wait for the wedding, it should be good fun now that it's going to be legal!"