LOVE has triumphed despite a nightmare battle against bureaucracy for Derek Perry and his Rwandan bride-to-be.

For two years Derek, from Tavistock, has been struggling to bring his fiancee to Britain. Two applications made in Uganda were refused. But miraculously the decision was overturned at a Home Office appeal he attended at Bath County Court last week.

The Home Office granted entry visas to enable Imacullee, 29, and her seven-year-old daughter Stella to come to the UK ? and he hopes they will join him in Tavistock next month.

Derek, 46, said: ?It was incredible. Our solicitor said it normally takes a minimum of 50 minutes, but it was over in less than 15 minutes.

?Imacullee and Stella have permission to come over for two years. This is an entry visa for a wedding and then in two years? time it will be assessed again. If we prove that we are okay she will get an indefinite visa.?

A member of Tavistock Community Church, Derek first began communicating with Imacullee in 1998 through his role as the church?s project co-ordinator for GLAM ? the Great Lakes Africa Mission.

He was trying to get pen-pals for the children at King?s in Pixon Lane and she was doing the same for the children at Kigali ? where Tavistock Community Church has been involved in setting up a hospital, clinics and schools for the locals in post-genocide Rwanda.

?After writing a couple of letters to one another they stopped being about pen-friends and became more personal. It hapened without us realising that we were both falling in love,? said Derek.

?In 1999 I decided to pop the question in one of the letters ? and she wrote back and said yes!?

Both practising Christians, they decided to take time to build their relationship.

?We wanted to wait until things were right for the both of us. That is why I went out in 2002. I had met her mother, Chantelle Kantarama, when she came to Tavistock in 2001 with Bishop Sadiki as guests of Tavistock Community Church pastor Colin Bond.

Although they wrote, sent e-mails and texted each other daily it was three years before Derek got to Rwanda to meet Imacullee. During his visit he asked permission to marry and her mother gave it.

The couple plan to marry in Tavistock register office followed by a service at Tavistock Comunity Church performed by Pastor Bond.

Derek says they will stay for three to four years before returning to Africa to devote themselves to missionary work.

In their fight to live together in Britain the couple have had the help and support of West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett and his wife, Billie.

Mr Burnett said he had been ?extremely touched by the plight of Derek and his fiancee?.

?I?m delighted that they can now be together and I wish them every happiness. It is one of those many occasions where being an MP is extremely fulfilling.?