A gay couple who won a landmark legal victory to be named as the parents of surrogate twins in America were bracing themselves for another court battle after being told the babies were not legally entitled to British citizenship.

Barrie Drewitt and Tony Barlow, who spent £200,000 on the surrogacy, could now be forced to go through a lengthy adoption process if Home Secretary Jack Straw refuses to intervene, according to Government officials.

Mr Drewitt, 32, and Mr Barlow, 35, arrived back in Britain last week with the three-week-old babies Saffron and Aspen only to be told by immigration officers that the infants did not qualify for automatic residency.

Now the two millionaire businessmen from Danbury, near Chelmsford, have got a month to find a solution to the latest legal obstacle put in their way.

The men, named on the twins' US birth certificates as "parent one" and "parent two", said they were exasperated by the hitch. "It's stressful. We've been through so much before just to get pregnant and then worrying all through the pregnancy," Mr Barlow said today.

"All we want to do it just get on with our lives," he said.

A Home Office spokeswoman said the couple had got three options and top of that list would be adopting the twins in this country.

She said under British law the surrogate mother was still the legal parent.

But she added the men could apply for an extension to the month-long temporary stay while they began the adoption process.

However, there is no guarantee they will be granted adoption rights or how long the process would take.

Another option available to the men is to ask Home Secretary Jack Straw to intervene personally and grant the children residency under the British Nationality Act 1981.

But the spokeswoman said the Home Secretary would be wary of setting a precedent that would later be regretted when applied to other child immigration cases.

The third option would be to apply for entry clearance and not citizenship for the twins which would mean they would remain US nationals, but would be allowed to live in Britain.

She said: "We want to consider this case very carefully. With any case that raises unprecedented issues, we would want to be careful to consider the implications.

"The welfare of the children has to be taken into account.

"We have to be careful the case would not set a precedent that would have unfortunate consequences."

The spokeswoman said the men had not made applications for any of the three solutions yet.

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