A British resident stranded in Jamaica with her baby, who was told by the Home Office the boy could not come to the UK because he had an ‘established life’ on the Caribbean island, has now been told by the Home Office that she can bring him in, after the Guardian revealed the family’s fate.

Just 24 hours after the Guardian article was published, the Home Office granted the baby’s visa and notified her mother, Tiffany Ellis – who is on indefinite leave to stay in the UK, where she lives since the age of eight – that he was ready for immediate collection.

Ellis said she was so thrilled when she received a call on Tuesday from a Home Office official telling her she could get her baby’s visa straight away that she “laid down by earth and wept”.

“I called my husband who was at work to tell him the news and he cried too. The Home Office’s decision is long overdue. I will get the first possible flight home. I can’t wait to kissing my husband and my daughter.

Tiffany traveled to Jamaica to marry her partner Zarren Ellis, 38, in January 2020, along with their daughter Xianna, now five. The couple live in London. The Covid lockdown followed by Tiffany, 28, becoming pregnant and suffering from constant vomiting – hyperemesis gravidarum – so severe she was unable to leave the house had delayed the family’s return to the UK.

Tiffany gave birth to Xien on April 30 last year in Jamaica and has been trying to return to the UK ever since. She applied for a visa for the baby but last December the Home Office refused her, saying: “You are currently living and studying with your mother in Jamaica.

The officials wrote that the decision was “justified by the need to maintain effective immigration and border control” and would not have “unfairly harsh consequences”.

The rejection letter added that the baby’s life could continue as it is now in Jamaica with the financial support of her mother in the UK.

The Interior Ministry denied Xien’s visa application on December 22 when he was almost eight months old.

Zarren felt he had to return to London last December so that Xianna could go to school. They had to leave Tiffany and Xien in Jamaica because of the Home Office’s visa denial.

The father and daughter are at the family’s house in London, desperate to find Tiffany and Xien.

Karen Doyle of the Justice Movement, which has supported the family, hailed the Interior Ministry’s decision to grant Xien a visa: “These kinds of inhumane and reckless decisions by the Interior Ministry must stop.” , she said.

Home Office sources have previously said the documents they requested were sent in an unreadable format. A spokesperson previously said: “Following the discovery of new evidence, we have agreed to review this request in May. We are awaiting additional information and once received we will carefully review the application.

On Tuesday, a Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are in contact with Ms Ellis and have now issued the child’s visa.