OA239212012

The appellant is a citizen of Sri Lanka born on 25 th March 1972. He made an application for entry clearance as a spouse. This was refused by the Entry Clearance Officer on 16 th October 2012 for the reasons as contained in the notice of refusal.

Essentially it was said that the appellant had previously submitted a false marriage certificate. In relation to the current application a false refugee identity document was also submitted. It was also contended that the marriage certificate submitted in support of the current application did not match that which had previously been submitted and it was contended that that also was false. Thus the Entry Clearance Officer was not satisfied that the appellant and the sponsor had contracted a valid marriage.

The matter came before First-tier Tribunal Judge Barker on 6 th December 2013. On that occasion the sponsor attended and gave evidence.

In relation to the false marriage certificate submitted on the previous occasion ,it was her evidence that she relied upon the assistance of others and had no knowledge that it was false. She stressed the difficulty of getting documents in the situation that existed in Sri Lanka. As to the identity card, her evidence was that she had obtained it and had no knowledge that it was false. Reliance is placed by the respondent upon the document verification report which was issued on 23 rd July 2013.

The sponsor did not accept, however, that a false marriage certificate had been issued in the current situation.