thanks all, extremely helpful!

it's all booked now, but after researching it a bit more i am a little concerned about the interview at the border. there are various horror stories on these forums and yahoo answers - although the large majority of them have a lesson to be learned or a reason that wouldn't be able to be applied in her case. i imagine the sticking complication will be that she's my girlfriend.

sounds like the case could be argued convincingly with sufficient documentation, which she will be carrying, i just hope they take a good look at it!

will try and remember to update this thread in december when we see what happens. *gulp*