An Australian family who faced deportation from the UK have been given leave to remain.
Gregg and Kathryn Brain moved to Dingwall in the Highlands with their son Lachlan in 2011.
The family settled in Dingwall in 2011 on a student visa awarded to Kathryn Brain. They believed they would later qualify for a post-study work visa, but the scheme ended in 2012.
Despite the official window for the family to meet visa requirements closing on August 1, Mrs Brain has now been given a Tier 2 visa after securing a job as a historian with the Macdonald Hotels group.
She said: "I can't describe the feeling - I don't know whether to laugh or cry. We're very grateful and very thankful to everyone.
"We're starting from scratch now - we've spent all our savings and then some and we're living in a property which we have to be out of by the end of the month.
"That's our next challenge - but it's a small one in comparison."
Mr Brain said the couple were "astonished" at the support they had received.
He added: "There are so many other people who have contacted us with similar stories and I don't know why ours is any different.
"There seems to be a culture of 'inventive refusal' where people try to find reasons to refuse applications."
A Tier 2 visa allows candidates to stay for a maximum of five years and 14 days, or as long as it takes to be given a certificate of sponsorship.
The Home Office confirmed that the initial term of the Brain's visa would be one year, but said they can apply for an extension after 12 months.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We have always been clear with the Brain family that if a suitable job offer was received an application to remain in the UK would be considered.
"We gave them a number of extensions on an exceptional basis to allow them to try to secure a job that would allow them to meet the immigration rules.
"Mrs Brain was subsequently offered a job with a hotel group. This has been considered and we are satisfied that it meets the conditions for a Tier 2 visa.
"Today we have written to Mrs Brain and confirmed that she and her family have been granted leave to remain in the UK."
Mrs Brain was forced to turn down a previous job offer from Macdonald Hotels because at that stage the company did not have the proper paperwork to sponsor a visa.
The government announced the discontinuation of its post-study work visa scheme in March 2011, three months before the Brain family arrived in Scotland.
Mr Brain said they had applied and been accepted for the scheme in 2010, and only became aware of the changes to the rules until two years later, shortly before they came into effect.
A day before they were due to be deported on May 31, immigration minister James Brokenshire gave the family leave to remain in the country until August 1.
His successor Robert Goodwill said he would be willing to look at extending the deadline further if a concrete job offer was made.
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