Last year the American authorities refused to give Islander John Oliver a Green Card which would have allowed him to live with his son Robert in New Jersey on the grounds that the pensioner had overstayed a 90-day visa in 2013.
Mr Oliver had breached his visa because his wife, Betty, fell ill during their trip and doctors advised the couple not to leave the country because she was too sick to travel – she died a year later in a New Jersey hospice.
Now, after New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and Governor Chris Christie put pressure on the State Department to make an exception in Mr Oliver’s case, the former soldier has been granted a conditional parole which is renewable every two years and which enables him to live in the country.
Subject to approval from the American Embassy in London, Mr Oliver now hopes to move to America at the end of May.
