We're sat in Pendleton Gateway, and Glenn Croston is shaking his head... "I'm a person of good standing" he repeats "I'm an ex-police officer, I was in the army, I'm a school governor, a youth offending panel member... none of these I would be able to do if I was of bad character..."
Glenn spent nine years in the army serving all over the world, from Ethiopia to Germany, and now helps run the Salford Veterans Breakfast club at Pendleton Church. He also served for nine years as an officer in the Metropolitan Police, before having to retire due to a hearing impairment.
"I went to Thailand to start afresh, teaching and starting my own business...I didn't think I would be coming back to the UK to be honest" he explains.
In Thailand he met and fell in love with Boonsom, or Boo, and they married in December 2012, intending to settle in Thailand where Glenn has a home. However, in 2013, he had to return to Salford to take custody of his children from a previous marriage...
"I had a choice" he recalls "I could take them back to Thailand or see them through school here, which I decided to do. I had to leave Boo behind and applied for her to come over in 2013 but I didn't meet the financial tariff, which I accepted, so we decided I would stay here and she would stay there. I've been going over twice a year and `speaking' to her on Facebook all the time."
Recently, as an army veteran, the Royal British Legion got in touch and offered Glenn and his family one of their Poppy Breaks in Bridlington during the school holidays this Easter.
"I've been back here for three years and in all that time it's been a strain on our relationship but this was an opportunity, I thought, to spend some time together; to get Boo over on a tourist visa to join us for a holiday as the children have never met her, only through Facebook" he says "I went over to Thailand in January and did all the paperwork, covered all the bases, but when she went to pick up her passport and papers she found out that a visa had not been issued."
The official reasons given to Boo on the UK Visas and Immigration `Refusal' notice, written by an anonymous official in the UK embassy in Bangkok, are that Boo couldn't "demonstrate an ongoing relationship, aside from your wedding certificate"... that "I am lead [sic] to doubt your circumstances and intentions regarding this visit and I am not satisfied that you are genuinely seeking entry as a visitor and that you intend to leave the UK at the end of your visit"...
He added that "I am not satisfied that there is a genuine professional or personal relationship between you and your husband and that he can and will provide support to you during your visit. Your application is therefore refused."
Understandably Glenn is livid. He provided bank statements, return flight details, and even a letter from Boo's employer in Thailand stating that she would be taking holiday leave and that her job was secure...
"I don't understand that the marriage certificate was not enough" he says "Was she supposed to print off personal Facebook messages to show there is a personal relationship? And I don't know why the officer concerned thinks I wouldn't look after my own wife. They don't know me and it's nothing short of a defamation of character. I am a person of good character. I don't understand why that kind of language has been used."
While the refusal notice states that there is no right to appeal the decision, Glenn has written back and is awaiting a response. The Royal British Legion is looking into it and local Worsley and Eccles South MP, Barbara Keeley, has been asked to intervene...
"Nobody can see a reasonable reason for them not issuing the visa" says Glenn "Boo has got a well paid job and her family home in Thailand. She has a daughter from a previous relationship; there's lots of reasons why she would go back. She would also be breaking the law and would not be allowed to come back to the UK again. This was a short term tourist visa, with everything to go back for and not overstay. It appears to me they've not looked at the character and just made an arbitrary decision."
It seems that Glenn and Boo's relationship has been caught in the immigration crossfire, with the Tory Government under pressure to clamp down. Glenn agrees...
"They can't do anything about people coming from the EU, nor from people claiming asylum, so this is perhaps Theresa May showing her fellow Tories that she is doing something about immigration" he says "But they are hitting the wrong people."
As thousands of British tourists will be hitting Thailand's beaches this Easter without any hitches, it seems bizarre, to say the least, that a Thai lady is being refused the pleasure of a holiday in Bridlington, via Salford.
"We need to persuade someone in that office to look at it again because the reasons they've given don't satisfy anybody" says Glenn "I can re-apply but what else can I give them? I just don't understand from the paperwork in front of me what the issue is. I can't get it out of my head. What have I done wrong?"
* The Salford Star contacted the Home Office in relation to this case and a spokesman said: "All cases are carefully considered on their individual merits, in line with the UK immigration rules and based on evidence provided by the applicant."
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