A COUPLE'S plan for a dream Christmas wedding in Kenya could be left in tatters after incompetent bureaucrats mislaid a passport.

Russian Maria Meschaninova, 27, and Craig Veysey, 27, from Bromley, planned to leave on their £5,000 wedding and honeymoon at the coastal resort of Malindi on December 23.

But the couple, who fell in love when Maria from the Udmurt Republic came to England to teach, are just 12 days away from their planned trip and officials have told them it could be weeks before the passport is returned to them.

Their trouble began in August when Maria, who teaches at Malcolm Primary, Malcolm Road, Penge, sent off her passport to the Department of Employment and Education (DoEE) for an extension to her work permit.

The DoEE issued the permit and then forwarded her passport to the Immigration Nationality Directorate for an extension to her visa. Maria and Craig first became concerned when the passport was not returned after seven weeks. A visa extension is only meant to take a month.

By late October they decided to ask for the passport back, and re-apply for the visa extension after their honeymoon.

It was only after they had sent 20 faxes that officials admitted it could take weeks to "locate her file".

Craig, of Carlyle Avenue, Bromley, said: "We're disgusted and disheartened. The bureaucracy at the Immigration Nationality Directorate is appalling.

Everyone has been passing the buck to someone else. There's no sense of responsibility.

"If someone took charge and made the relevant phone calls it would could be sorted out."

Maria said: "They rang my school to tell me my passport was lost. They say it will take a week to do an initial search and a month to do an extensive one.

"But we have to leave on December 23 and we've already paid £5,000."

December 10, 2001 10:17

Ed Hadfield