OA074542015

This is an appeal by the Entry Clearance Officer, Islamabad, against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Judge Farmer) allowing an appeal by the applicant against a decision made on 7 April 2015 refusing her entry clearance as a spouse. In this decision, I will refer to the parties as they were before the First-tier Tribunal, the applicant as the appellant and the Entry Clearance Officer as the respondent.

The respondent argues in the grounds that the judge erred in law by finding that there was no financial threshold that must be met contrary to the decision of the AIT in KA & Others (adequacy of maintenance) Pakistan [2006] UKAIT 00065 .

Mr Bramble disagreed arguing that the savings would only provide a top up for about 21 months instead of 30 months, the initial period of leave. The issues relating to third party support and the appellant's employment capacity had not been adequately dealt with and, on the information before the judge, the appellant would fail to meet the requirements of the Rules.

It is rightly conceded that the judge erred in law when he said that there was no relevant financial threshold. It is clear from both KA (Pakistan) and para 6A of the Rules that the relevant financial threshold is the level of income support that would be available to the family.

The decision is, accordingly, set aside and is to be re-made in the Upper Tribunal. I record that it was accepted that there was no issue in relation to the adequacy of accommodation or with the figures relating to the benefits received by the sponsor and the relevant income support level. I also directed that if either party wished to re-open those issues, they may only do so if they gave adequate notice to the other party.