A CRUISE ship worker is set to miss the birth of his child after the Home Office refused to give him a visiting visa.

Chelsea Hilder, 23, and Mark Moncada, 24 are expecting their first child at the end of April.

Echo:

Concerns - Miss Hilder said Mark will miss out on vital bonding with his child due to his guest visa not being approved

The couple met while working on a cruise ship in December 2017, with Miss Hilder, from Southend, falling pregnant in July last year.

However, due to Mr Moncada’s commitments to working on cruises, which see him away for up to 11 months at a time, Miss Hilder has gone through the majority of the pregnancy by herself.

Now, Mr Moncada, originally from the Philippines, has been denied a visiting visa to come to the UK for the birth of his child, despite previously visiting his fiancé on several other occasions.

Miss Hilder said: “We ‘passed’ on every single paragraph of the application apart from one line. It said there would be no cause for him to return to the Philippines or to work after coming here [raising a risk he may try to stay] “But that’s not the case, he works for months on cruise ships, a full time position, and that won’t change.

“We provided all the evidence of this, including his ‘return to ship letter’, and we passed all the financial requirements. They even said they fully believed we were a genuine couple and the reasons for him wanting to visit.

“We’ve been granted an appeal, which we were initially told would happen before the due date, but now they said it won’t be for 15 weeks.

“By this time, our child will be several weeks old.”

Miss Hilder is now gravely concerned her fiancé and child will miss out on vital bonding during its first few months of life.

The appeal is still set to go ahead, but the couple will not be able to be in the same country beforehand.

This means she will have to raise their child alone for the first few weeks.

Miss Hilder added: “Our lawyer has been fantastic, he’s worked hard to get us the appeal, but we now face a real challenge.

“I last saw Mark on October 12. Not only have I had to do my whole pregnancy alone, I now have to go through birth alone with the fear of him not meeting his daughter for months down the line.

“Lots of people will get to hold his child before him.

“We were told me being pregnant is no reason to expedite our appeal. I can’t understand how a Government body can justify a man not at the birth of his child.

“He has now had to return to cruise ships until we get an appeal date as it’s the only way he can possibly meet our daughter for a few hours in Southampton.

“Hardly time to bond. An innocent unborn baby could be left without a dad until they grant the visa.”

The Home Office did not respond to requests for comment.