A newly-wed from Yeadon was today settling down to life at home with his American wife after immigration red tape kept them apart for almost a year.

And David Scott, 30 - who met his wife Paige, 32, on the Internet - says he believes the coverage of his story in the Telegraph & Argus and backing from his MP may have helped his American Dream come true.

The T&A revealed last September how the couple feared they could be apart for almost two years while David's application for residency was processed. And the Scotts also faced the heartbreaking prospect of spending their first Christmas thousands of miles apart after David was told he could not visit the US while waiting to emigrate.

After enlisting the help of Aireborough MP Paul Truswell, David was told he could travel to America for the festive season as a tourist.

And he is now living with Paige at her home in Savannah, Georgia, after finally being granted a temporary residency visa.

The couple will now be together for Paige's birthday in May and their first wedding anniversary in June.

Speaking from Savannah, where David has been given a management job with an Internet software call centre company, he said: "It was such a relief to finally get the visa after all these months. It was great being reunited with Paige at the airport knowing we were going home together at last.

"It feels like home already and the job's going well although it hasn't really sunk in yet that I don't have to go back. When you want to be with someone even one day apart is too long but our separation seemed to go on for so long.

"The secret was to try not to think about it too much because if you do knowing you're 3,500 miles apart can make you feel very isolated.''

Mr Scott, a former team leader with Barclays Mortgages in Leeds, added: "I'm sure the MP's help and the stories in the T&A helped speed the whole process up by a few months.''

Mr Truswell said: "I'm absolutely delighted to have helped the course of transatlantic true love flow more smoothly. The Internet was obviously a nifty way to get hitched but human bureaucracy is always likely to lag far behind.''

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.