AUSSIE coffee-shop owner Jacky Collyer is making plans to move to Denmark with her husband after the Home Office rejected their appeal to stay in the country.

Although the 27-year-old, who moved from her Melbourne home to the UK in 2011 before marrying British husband Andy Carter in 2013, now plans to take her appeal to an even higher authority – the Upper Tribunal – it is primarily to buy the couple time to sell their popular Faringdon Road coffee house and prepare for the move to Copenhagen.

A week before the couple opened Darkroom Espresso in the town centre 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 by April 2, or face deportation.

Last month, after advice from an immigration lawyer, Jacky wrote to the Home Office requesting permission to appeal the decision, but last week she was told the request had been rejected.

She has once more has been given 14 days to leave the country, but appealing to the Upper Tribunal will buy the couple another six to 10 weeks while they wait for a response.

“We thought when they got back to us it would be the final final option so we did hear back from them two days ago(may20) to say out application for permission to appeal the decision had been rejected, and they gave me 14 days to leave,” said Jacky.

“But they also included the option of appealing to the Upper Tribunal, which is the next level.

“We have decided to appeal to the next level just because it takes so long for them to get back to us. We just need that extra time to sort everything out.

“I think we will end up selling the shop," said Jacky.

"What’s great is that there has been quite a lot of interest, so we won’t need to liquidate the business like we thought we might and it will still be serving coffee to people in Swindon.

“We are now thinking that Copenhagen would be a good place to go to. We did consider going to Australia but it would cost £4,000 for a visa for Andy, which we just can’t afford, so we have been thinking Europe for some time because we can both legally work there.

“In Denmark they have quite a lot of places in the specialist coffee industry, and the wages are higher than in the UK.

“They also offer financial incentives to people who want to learn the language, which feels a lot more welcoming than the experience we’ve had here in the UK.”

While the experience has been demoralising, Jacky said they were fortunate to be in a situation where they could immigrate.

“We’re so lucky because we are both young and we don’t have children and we both like travelling, so we can just move,” she said.

“There are whole families out there in similar situations which are having to split up and be separated because of this.”

Jacky has been overwhelmed by the attention the saga has drawn, and touched by the reaction of Darkroom Espresso’s customers, who last month started a campaign to try and keep her in the country.

“We weren’t expecting anything really, just the opposite. We avoided telling people just because it was something about us, but when it got to the point where we had to tell most of our regulars, some of them were getting teary-eyed about it. They said that it was such a shame because they had just found the kind of place they really wanted to go to and we might have to go so soon.”

The couple fell foul of a UK immigration law which came into effect in 2012, which meant Jacky had to earn £18,600 to stay in the country.

Husband Andy, 28, said: “I was out of work at the time because I was still at university, and at the time Jacky was working in two places and she was earning more than I was.

“But I think they have refused to accept some of her pay slips because they weren’t on special paper.

“A very similar case appealed against the Home Office in 2013, and many of the cases including Jacky’s were put on hold.

“This was eventually accepted, and we thought, perhaps rather naively, that so would ours, and Jacky would be able to stay, so we went about setting up the business.”

Since they found out that Jacky could face deportation, the couple have been weighing up the options before settling on Denmark.

Jacky said last month: “The ridiculous thing is we could go to another EU country, like Germany, France or Ireland for example, and stay there for a minimum of three months. Andy would have to work there but after a minimum of three months if we then came to the UK we would be considered under EU law and come back under the freedom of movement laws. As a family member to Andy I would be entitled to the same rights and be able to stay.

“But even we did that we don’t know if we could find someone to manage the business in the meantime, or if we would have to close it down. And even if we did manage to come back we don’t know if we’d even have the energy to start it all from scratch again.”

Last month, a Home Office spokesman said: “All applications are considered on their 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:facebook.com/Save darkroom.