A Croydon woman could see the love of her life kicked out of the country in two weeks, all because of a "mistake" with his paperwork.

James Geale has been living in England for the past 10 years and had been planning to marry Jenni Sutton this coming August.

Now Mr Geale is being told he must hand himself in to an immigration officer on January 16 and make his way back to Australia.

"In August 2017, he applied for his indefinite leave to remain visa, however genuinely got the deadline date wrong and submitted the application 29 days late," Ms Sutton said.

"The process took five months before we received a letter to say his application had been rejected.

"This punishment is over the top.

"Yeah he made a mistake but having to leave the country isn't right."

The couple, who have lived together for 18 months and bought a house in Norwood Junction, have since sought legal advice and were told their best chance of keeping Mr Geale in the country was just to get married now.

There is another problem though.

The Government's Home Office has James' passport and the couple can't seem to get a hold of it.

"We are being screwed over at every opportunity here," Ms Sutton said.

"James has legally lived here paid his taxes and we are genuinely in love but have now found ourselves in an impossible situation which means James can not work, he will have to leave the country.

"I need to go with him at some point so we can marry and then he will have to wait until the spouse visa is processed.

"We just need a passport."

Replying to the couple's concerns, a spokeswoman for the Home Office gave a short and succinct answer.

"Mr Geale's application was refused as he failed to submit his application within the advised timeframe."

She also said that Mr Geale is free to apply for an administrative review of the decision.