An American woman who has been married to a Shirley teacher for more than four years is facing deportation after the Home Office said there was not enough evidence to prove their marriage was genuine.

Despite support from MPs and the local community, a final appeal against the refusal of Lisa Barrett's spousal visa was rejected and Home Office officials have told her she must return to the US.

Lisa has been advised to leave the UK voluntarily and reapply for a spouse visa while in America, although there is no guarantee it will be granted. The process could take months or years.

And the couple, who live in Bracken Avenue on the Shrublands Estate, said they could not afford the air fare to the US.

A heartbroken Lisa said: "This situation is just crazy. I've built a life for myself here, Croydon is my home. I would give anything to be able to work and support myself and contribute to the economy but I don't know what more I have to do to prove Gavin and I are for real.

"A round trip to the States could cost us up to £2,000, which we just don't have. In the time I've been here I've not been able to work without a visa and we are broke.

"Even if I do get there it could take a long time to get the decision, if it gets approved at all. I will have to leave at some point, I'm hoping I will be able to wait until after Christmas, but I have no idea how I'm going to get there.

"I'm preparing myself to be separated from my husband for a long time. I'm devastated, I feel like I'm being punished for falling in love."

A spokesman from Croydon Central MP Andrew Pelling's office said: "The Home Office is still not convinced there is enough proof of a genuine and subsisting marriage.

"All her avenues of appeal have been exhausted and she will need to go back to the States. The Home Office has said that if she goes back to the US she can reapply for a spouse visa, but they are going to have to find the air fare to get there.

"There's not much more we can do except try and help them find the best way to raise the money to get back to the US.

"I don't know what's going on with the system. On the one hand it is granting asylum to five Americans, as reported the other week, but it is targeting people like Lisa who is trying to do her best to go through the proper channels."