Erin's battle to stay in Britain

Affleck's Palace businesswoman faces being sent back to US after visa application denied

- GRETA SIMPSON

ERIN Taylor-Thomas is losing her American accent.

There is still a flavour of her Tennessee drawl there, but alongside it is a decidedly English - even northern - lilt fighting to be heard. That's because Erin hasn't lived in the US for more than seven years.

In the intervening time, she's settled down in Withington with British husband Ethan and started a successful business inside Affleck's Palace.

Meeting her in person at her riotously colourful thrift shop, Beg, Steal and Borrow, she is as friendly and bubbly as her decor is bright. But even her cheerful demeanour dampens when discussing the news she had just received that her visa had been denied by the Home Office, after seven years in the UK.

Upon discovering that her spousal visa had expired in April, Erin immediately applied for a new type of residency only to discover that she had applied for the wrong type.

When that was denied, she applied again for 'leave to remain' through her husband - but found out in mid-October that this too had been denied.

Erin is in the process of appealing this latest decision and estimates that the whole process will end up costing the couple almost £10,000. They have also notified their local MP, Jeff Smith, who they said had expressed support and asked to be 'kept up to date' with the situation.