OA042312013

The appellant in this appeal is the entry clearance officer (ECO). The respondent, Mrs Koli Begum, is referred to hereafter as the claimant. She was born on 20 th November 1989 and is a national of Bangladesh. She appealed to the First-tier Tribunal against the decision of the ECO, made on 6 th January 2013, to refuse her application for entry clearance as a spouse to join the sponsor, Mr Muzibur Rahman, under the provisions of EC-P.1.1 (d) and E-ECP.3.1 of Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules.

In a determination promulgated on 28 th March 2014 First-tier Tribunal Judge Fletcher-Hill (the Judge) allowed the appeal under the eligibility requirements of the Immigration Rules at EC-P.1.1 (d) and the financial requirements at E-ECP.3.1. of Appendix FM. Permission to appeal to Upper Tribunal Upper was initially refused to the ECO but was subsequently granted by Upper Tribunal Judge Southern on 9 th June 2014 for the reason that each of the grounds arguably identifies errors of law in the determination.

The matter accordingly came before me for an initial hearing to determine whether the making of the decision in the First-tier Tribunal involved the making of an error on a point of law.

The claimant made this application on 18 th October 2012. The ECO considered the requirement for her sponsor to show a gross income of at least �18,600 per annum in order to meet the necessary financial requirements of the Immigration Rules. He found that a P60, payslips for a 6-month period in relation to employment with Do and Co Event and Airline Catering and a contract of employment had not been provided; there was no explanation for the absence of these specified documents. However, the ECO accepted from checks with HMRC that the sponsor�s income for 2011/2012 was �18,586.

The Judge found that one payslip for May 2012 was still missing but she found the bank statements now submitted for the 6-month period before the application, which was made on 18 th October 2012, showed the sponsor�s income for that month. The Judge found that at the date of decision, on 6 th January 2013, the sponsor was earning �19,000 per annum taking account of a salary increase from his main employer from 1 st January 2013, as confirmed at page 37 of the appellant�s bundle of documents, and therefore 5 days before the date of decision.