OA210932012

The appellant in these proceedings is the Entry Clearance Officer (�ECO�). However, for convenience I refer to the parties as they were before the First-tier Tribunal.

The appellant, a citizen of Bangladesh born on 6 November 1988, made an application for entry clearance as a spouse on 26 June 2012. That application was refused in a decision dated 27 September 2012. Her appeal against that decision was allowed by First-tier judge A.R. Williams who heard the appeal on 7 August 2012.

The application for entry clearance was made under paragraph 281 of HC 395 (as amended). It was refused on the basis that the appellant had failed to provide an English language test certificate from an approved test provider as required by paragraph 281(ii).

Judge Williams appears on one view, to have found that the appellant had not met the English language requirement in terms of producing the relevant evidence as at the date of the decision but that by the time of the hearing she was able to produce a test certificate from an approved provider. Yet, referring to the decision in DR (ECO: post-decision evidence) Morocco * [2005] UKIAT 00038 he concluded, in summary, that her subsequent taking and passing of a English test from an approved provider cast light on the circumstances obtaining at the date of decision.

The test certificate that the appellant relied on in support of the application is dated 21 March 2011. It is from EMD International English Language Assessment (�EMD�). I note that it states �A1 (Mapped to the CEFR)� which in that respect at least, conforms with the Rules (as to the level required).