A COFFEE-shop owner who fell in love with her British husband over a cup of the black stuff before they set up shop in Swindon is facing deportation.

Australian-born Jacky Collyer, 27, who moved to the UK in 2011, met her husband Andy Carter while she was working in Brighton’s Taylor Street Baristas.

They married in 2013 and returned to Swindon, near where Andy grew up in Purton, to open up their own artisan coffee house in Faringdon Road.

But a week before they officially opened Darkroom Espresso last August, Jacky received a letter from the Home Office telling her that because the couple did not meet the minimum income threshold for sponsoring a non-EU spouse to stay in the country, she would have to return to Melbourne.

They appealed the Home Office decision but last week they received another letter telling her this had been rejected, and are now facing a lengthy separation and the folding of their business.

The letter said she would be required to leave the country by next Thursday, but she has since started an appeal process.

Andy, 28, said: “Our whole world has been torn apart. Our family and friends are here. We have a business. We have a cat.

“The law came in in 2012 which means we needed to prove Jacky was earning at least £18,600 to stay here.

“I was out of work at the time because I was still at university, and Jacky was working in two places, earning more than me."

The pair are now in discussions with an immigration lawyer and plan to appeal the latest decision, but they have also begun to consider other options.

“If we have to go we might try setting something up somewhere else, probably in Europe, maybe in Germany.”

Darkroom Espresso’s most loyal customers have started a Facebook campaign to try and keep Jacky in the country.

Jacky said: “Everyone has been really supportive.”

Among their supporters are the MP for North Wiltshire, James Gray, and the Labour party’s South Swindon parliamentary candidate, Anne Snelgrove.

She said: “This is a young couple who have set up a very successful business in the Railway Village which is an area which really needs more businesses like this.

“I am shocked and dismayed to hear about how the have been treated.

“I will be talking to some of my friends who are MPs and will be trying to find out what can be done.”

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

"We welcome those who wish to make a life in the UK with their family, work hard and make a contribution. But family life must not be established here at the taxpayer’s expense."

“That is why we implemented the recommendations of the Independent Migration Advisory Committee and established clear rules for British citizens looking to bring their non-EU spouse to this country, including a minimum income threshold.”

For more about the campaign, visit www.facebook.com/Savedarkroom