OA199652013

The appellant is a citizen of Bangladesh who was born on 8 July 1987. He applied for entry clearance to join his wife (the sponsor) in the UK. That application was refused by the Entry Clearance Officer on 27 October 2013 and the appellant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal. Before that hearing took place, the ECO made a fresh decision on 7 September 2014 in the light of the Court of Appeal-�s decision in R (MM (Lebanon)) v SSHD [2014] EWCA Civ 985 . The ECO maintained the earlier refusal of entry clearance.

The appellant sought permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal. On 26 January 2015, the First-tier Tribunal (DJ Macdonald) granted the appellant permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal on the basis that the judge was arguably wrong not to take account of the appellant-�s English language certificate which was in existence at the date of decision and secondly the Judge had failed to take into account all the documentary evidence in relation to the appellant-�s claimed income.

On 3 February 2015, the respondent served a rule 24 notice in which he stated that he did not -�oppose the appellant-�s application for permission to appeal-� and invited the Tribunal to determine the appeal at a fresh oral hearing.

Thus, the appeal came before me. The error of law being conceded, the decision fell to be re-made.

Mr Mills, who represented the respondent, conceded that the appellant had established the requirements in Appendix FM. He accepted that the evidence, in accordance with Appendix FM-SE, demonstrated that the sponsor earned sufficient income to satisfy the requirements of Appendix FM. Further, Mr Mills accepted that the appellant-�s English language certificate was in existence at the date of decision, albeit that it was only produced at the appeal hearing. He accepted that the appellant met the English language requirement on the basis of that certificate.