THE MP of an island businesswoman told to move to South Africa has asked the Home Office: “What box is she not ticking?”

Yesterday The National revealed how residents and visitors on Arran are urging Home Secretary Sajid Javid to let local woman Lizanne Zietsman stay in Scotland – with the petition surging by more than 5000 signatures in one day.

The 37-year-old set up shop on the island with husband John Malpas, buying The Sandwich Station cafe and living in the home his grandparents bought in the 1950s.

READ MORE: John Malpas's thank-you letter to community​

The pair met while working in the same Arran hotel and planned to stay there permanently.

Now she is preparing to leave the UK under threat of detention and deportation after officials turned down her residency bid.

The July 12 flight will come days after her husband’s birthday and the pair fear it will be October at the earliest before she can come home. The separation will come during the busy summer season and Malpas told The National the business will struggle without her, while friend and supplier George Grassie of the Blackwater Bakehouse told how islanders are making “a lot of noise” about Zietsman’s future.

Yesterday the number of signatories to the 38 Degrees website petition on the matter swelled to more than 10,5000 – far more than the entire population of the island and an increase of more than 5000 in a day. Meanwhile, North Ayrshire and Arran MP Patricia Gibson, who has written to the immigration service and Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes, is working to garner support from across the House of Commons.

Her early day motion urging a review of the visa refusal has so far won the backing of members of the SNP, Labour and DUP. It was published after she raised the “appalling” case in the House of Commons, while a petition showing “strength of feeling” will be handed to Parliament next week.

READ MORE: Home Office ignores 'human error' FOI 10-day review deadline

The Home Office has said: “All applications are considered on their individual merits, on the basis of the evidence provided and in accordance with the immigration rules.”

However, Gibson told this newspaper: “They say each case is considered on its own merits, but the problem with the system is it’s one-size-fits-all, there’s no consideration given to the fact that her community is behind her or to the sustainability of rural areas and islands in particular.

“This decision was clearly made by a bureaucrat who has never been on the island and has no interest in meeting Lizanne. If you are going to decide each application on its own merits, you have to consider these things.

“Lizanne is a job creator, she is fully integrated, what box is she not ticking? She’s exactly the type of person we want to attract.”

Malpas, originally from Oxford, said he was “shocked and angry” by the decision, which he related to the “hostile environment” for immigration, adding: “It’s so at-odds with what Scotland is about.”

Click here to view the petition on 38degrees