
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 6, 1990                   TAG: 9005060253
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

DAD GOES TO TOP FOR DAUGHTER'S VISA

Sometimes the father of the bride has to do more than escort his daughter down the aisle.

When Edward Cornell of Yorkshire, England, learned that his daughter's wedding to a Virginia Beach Navy man was about to be canceled for lack of a visa, he decided to go straight to the top.

He called George Bush, president, United States, and wrote Margaret Thatcher, prime minister, England.

Bush didn't respond. Thatcher did, clearing the way for Sarah Cornell to marry Timothy Carr on Saturday.

A fiancee visa, similar to an immigration visa, allows foreigners to come to the United States to marry American residents.

But the Cornells said the visa papers got mired in red tape at the U.S. Embassy in London. "We were going to have to call off the wedding," Cornell said. "They said it was going to be two or three weeks before I received the visa."

While Carr, a Kansas native, tried to get things worked out through Kansas legislators, Edward Cornell decided to start higher.

Edward Cornell said they owe it all to Thatcher.

"She cares about people," he said. "They call her the Iron Maiden, but she's not, really."

by CNB