Following a year-long campaign to have their marriage legally recognised, Faculty of English librarian David Rushmer and his wife, Wang Bang, have won their appeal against the Home Office.

The couple announced on Saturday that Ms Wang, a Chinese national, could return to the UK on a spouse visa. In August, a judge finally overturned a previous ruling which branded their relationship a sham.

Rushmer and Wang’s fight against the initial verdict included an online petition signed by more than 2,000 supporters, with many Cambridge students and members of staff pledging their support.

Ms Wang, an established writer and journalist who has published eight books in France and China, first came to the UK in 2010 with her ex-husband. She met Rushmer, also a published writer, in 2012 through a poetry website.

After living together in Cambridge for seven months, the couple married in June 2013. The wedding took place in China, where Ms Wang was forced to return after her leave to return visa application had been denied.

In order to prove the legitimacy of their relationship, Rushmer and Wang submitted a wealth of personal documents to the UK Border Agency, including family photographs and phone bills which detailed hours of conversation between them.

In a surprise verdict, however, the Border Agency ruled that the couple’s relationship was fabricated.

It accused Ms Wang of using her marriage to Rushmer, and her two previous relationships in the UK, to evade Chinese authorities. This ruling was based on a single interview with an Entry Clearance Officer, during which Ms Wang had mentioned her journalistic work on sensitive human rights issues, such as the Tiananmen Square protests and forced land seizures in China.

During the couple’s court date in August, eleven witnesses testified to the sincerity of their relationship. After the 45 minute appeal hearing, the Judge overturned the Home Office’s verdict, saying: “I have no hesitation in finding on the voluminous evidence before me that there is a genuine and subsisting relationship between the parties.”

In a statement published on change.org, Wang and Rushmer reminded supporters that they are not the only ones affected by harsh UK immigration laws.

“Don’t forget we are still only one couple of approximately 17,000 people currently separated by these rulings”, they wrote, “do continue to give them your support.”