AN Oxfordshire couple are facing the festive period apart after Home Office officials confirmed attempts a visa application would not be fast-tracked.

Steve Bearns, 56, lives in Wallingford with his son Ryan, three, but complications regarding his wife Xia Zu's visa means she is unable to return from China for the time being.

The operations manager for a technology firm said he had given up hope of being reunited with his wife – known as Mary in the UK – in time for Christmas after a caseworker said the case would not be 'expedited'.

He said: "I really don't think we will be together in time for Christmas, which is a great shame for the whole family.

"It could take months for this whole thing to be sorted out.

"A caseworker at the immigration service has said our case won't be fast-tracked but I'm going to appeal that decision. I'm determined not to give up the fight."

Mr Bearns, 56, met Xia Zu in Shenzhen, China, in 2006 and they married there in 2010.

The couple decided to live in Britain and moved to Wallingford after their son Ryan, three, was born in the UK in 2013.

But problems with Xia’s visa application have now left her stuck in China.

The 35-year-old was initially granted a family visit visa that allowed her to stay in the UK for 180 days of any 12-month period.

Last year Mr Bearns and his wife agreed to apply for a spouse visa as part of the process of being allowed to live in the UK.

The application was refused by the immigration service, then granted on appeal at a tribunal, but the spouse visa has not yet been issued.

In January, Xia went back to China to help look after her sick father and has stayed there since because her appeal for a spouse visa, which lasts for two-and-half years, is still being processed by the Home Office.

After Wantage MP Ed Vaizey called for the visa to be issued immediately.

An immigration service tribunal caseworker, issued a statement which said: "The tribunal has decided not to expedite this appeal because the application does not provide a significantly compelling reason why this appeal should delay other appeals and therefore it is not in the interests of justice to do so."

Mrs Bearns said earlier that her son had been ill, and it was a 'nightmare' that she could not hug her son to comfort him.

Mr Vaizey said the couple had been treated 'disgracefully' by the immigration service and has been lobbying immigration minister Robert Goodwill on their behalf.

Promising to continue campaigning on behalf of the Bearns family, Mr Vaizey said: "It's quite clear that Steve and his wife should be reunited.

"They have been pushed from pillar to post by bureaucracy."