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Former Ford car plant worker Ken Miller, 69, has just returned from the South-West China city of Nanning where he married Yin Qeio.
But before he went, Neath Port Talbot Council told him his bride would not be able to share his home at the Maes y Darren older persons' complex in Ystalyfera in the Swansea Valley, because it had an over-60 age restriction.
Yesterday, however, the council conceded that rules meant the authority could not prevent his new wife moving in.
Robert Rees, head of housing services at Neath Port Talbot Council, said yesterday, "The legal position is that Mr Miller does not have to gain the council's permission for his wife to live with him at the complex.
"This information has been provided to both Mr Miller and to other residents."
Mr Miller's new wife, known as "Lei", is currently undergoing immigration checks in China before travelling to South Wales.
Speaking at Maes y Darren, Mr Miller admitted his marriage ceremony in China was "strange" but he said he was now legally married. He said, "We do face challenges because I speak only three words of Chinese and she speaks about three words of English."
Ex RAF man Mr Miller, who has been married twice before, contacted Yin Qeio through a dating agency last summer.
They emailed each other with the help of interpreters and six weeks ago he met her for the first time when he flew to Nanning, close to China's border with Vietnam.
He said, "People marry for different reasons, but she has genuine affection for me - unless she was acting 24 hours a day.
"I met her family and they were nice, though language is difficult.
"Interpreters only help to a degree; they use flowery phrases like "magic of an elephant" to describe feelings. You only understand it to a certain degree.
"People have a false idea of China. The shops there are brimming with consumer goods and they have skyscraper blocks of flats.
"These are not destroyed by graffiti or out-of-control youths like some of ours, though there is some poverty.
"You can have a modern block of flats next to one which looks like an old prison."
Mr Miller says he has signed up to go on the Trisha daytime talk show with Yin Qeio when she arrives in Britain.
"People question my motives, but I just want company in my remaining years and I have found somebody more than happy to provide it.
"One of the biggest problems for older people is loneliness, so I decided to do something about it.
"I've been alone for eight years and I would rather have her with me for the next few years, even to the day I die."
Mr Miller said his new bride would find settling into Ystalyfera difficult. "The weather is different and the language will be a problem in the beginning. But she is very keen to learn English and she definitely wants to work."
Mr Miller, who received a dose of radiation while involved in the Christmas Island H-bomb tests in the 1950s, moved to Neath with his first wife in the 1960s.
She died of cancer in 1992 and he re-married, but has been divorced for a number of years.
He said, "The tabloids seem to think it's easy for people from abroad to come into Britain, but my wife is going through some serious checks at the moment.
"I am just looking forward to it being all over and meeting her at the airport."
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