OA203412012

This is the Entry Clearance Officer's appeal against the decision of First-tier Tribunal Judge Jacobs-Jones, promulgated on 12 July 2013, following a hearing at Hatton Cross on 5 July 2013, whereby the judge allowed Mrs Ambalavanar�s appeal against the Entry Clearance Officer's decision refusing her application for settlement in order to join her son, a British citizen, in the UK. For ease of reference, I shall refer throughout this decision to the Entry Clearance Officer, who was the original respondent, as �the ECO� and to Mrs Ambalavanr, who was the original appellant, as �the claimant�.

The claimant, who is a citizen on Sri Lanka born on 26 January 1945, is a widow, and applied under paragraph 317(iv)(a) of the Immigration Rules to join her children in the UK. The ECO refused her application because he considered that the claimant had not established that the maintenance requirements under the Rules had been satisfied.

The claimant appealed against this decision and as already noted, her appeal was allowed by the First-tier Tribunal.

In her determination, Judge Jacobs-Jones made findings that in addition to financial support from the main sponsor, the claimant would also be supported by her other son. She considered that genuine offers of financial assistance from third parties could be taken into account �with a view to assessing whether the cumulative income would adequately maintain� the claimant, and found that it would.

The basis of the ECO�s appeal was that this aspect of the judge�s findings was not adequately reasoned, because the judge had not given any consideration to the expenses of the third parties who would be providing support. It was recognised (at paragraph 4 of the grounds) that the �ultimate decision may have been correct�, but without adequate reasoning, the decision could not stand.