OA099832014

This is an appeal by the Entry Clearance Officer against a decision by Judge of the First-tier Tribunal Stewart dismissing an appeal against the refusal of entry clearance. Before the First-tier Tribunal the Appellant was Mr Michel Kapela Kandolo (hereinafter referred to as "the applicant"). The applicant was born on 14 th June 1979 and is a national of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The applicant had applied on 30 th May 2014 for entry clearance to come to the UK as the spouse of a British citizen, Ms Luyindula Mongwele. The couple were married at a church wedding in England on 2 nd October 2010 and then had a civil ceremony in Kinshasa. The couple have two children, one born in April 2011 and a second born in January 2014. Both children are British citizens.

Furthermore, the ECO pointed out that there was an extant deportation order in respect of the applicant and no application for a revocation of this had been made. The Tribunal's findings were irrelevant because the Tribunal had failed to address the single most important aspect of the case.

Permission to appeal was granted on the basis that the Judge of the First-tier Tribunal had made no reference to the applicant being subject to a deportation order and this was an arguable error of law. It was also arguable that the judge had erred by giving insufficient weight to the public interest, particularly taking into account the criminal offence the applicant had committed.

At the hearing before me Mr Bramble relied upon the grounds of the application. The conviction was live and no consideration was given to the conviction in the decision.