A PETITION has been set up calling for UK Border Agency officials to allow a Nepalese man to travel to the Ramsbottom home of his wife and seven-month-old son.

The UK Border Agency has rejected four separate visa applications for Biswodip Khadka, 29, to spend time with his wife Mairead, 31, and their son Rohan.

The family said they have been told by the agency that they could not be confident Mr Khadka would not try to remain in the country after his stay.

Mrs Khadka’s sister, Jennifer Ridler, started the petition and has so far collected 322 signatures.

Mr Khadka missed the birth of his son, and only saw Rohan at the age of 14 weeks.

Mrs Khadka, who came back to Ramsbottom with her son over Easter, said: “I cannot describe the feeling I had when Biswo took Rohan from me and held him in his arms for the first time.

“After all that time on Skype, trying to bond with him over a computer, he finally got to touch him in the flesh.”

The family had been together in Nepal and had planned to move to Abu Dhabi, where Mrs Khadka was due to take up a job at a new hospital in January, however delays have meant it will not open until June or July.

Their latest application for Mr Khadka to be allowed into Britain to meet his wife’s family was rejected, and Mrs Khadka returned to Ramsbottom without her partner.

Mrs Khadwa added: “This latest refusal has really hit me hard. Biswo feels humiliated. He has even asked me why I married a Nepali as he is not good enough to come to my country.

“I love my little family so much, I am so happy but this is breaking our hearts.”

The pair met two and a half years ago in Saudi Arabia, where Mrs Khadka was working as a nurse and Mr Khadka was working as a manager at a Starbucks cafe.

Rohan was born in August 2012 and the couple married in November last year.

In their last rejected appeal, they were told Mr Khadka’s salary was not proportionate to the cost of their trip to the UK, and that the financial documents they provided were not satisfactory.

Mrs Ridler said: “Biswo missed the first four months of his son’s life and they will never get that time back, but hopefully we can try and make things right for them now.”

Mrs Khadka plans to return to Nepal in three weeks to be with her husband.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Every visa application is considered on its individual merits and in line with the immigration rules. On this basis, the decision was taken to refuse Mr Khadka’s application.

“Mr Khadka has a right of appeal against this decision.”

The petition can be accessed and signed at gopetition.com/petitions/ keep-this-family-together.html