OA143642013 & ors

The appellants are citizens of Bangladesh born on 27 th May 1971, 4 th March 1995 and 18 th May 2000, and they applied for entry clearance as the partner and children of their sponsor, Mr Mohammed Rashid, on 27 th February 2013. Those applications were refused by the Entry Clearance Officer on 13 th June 2013 on the basis that the sponsor�s income was contrived for the purposes of the application and that the English language documents were not accepted as genuine.

The appeal was determined by First-tier Tribunal Judge A J M Baldwin and he refused the appeal. He took into account the documentation placed before him which included the respondent�s bundle including the applications, employment contract, payslips, bank statements and accommodation evidence, and the appellants� bundle which included a skeleton argument, statements, bank statements, employer�s letter and contract, payslips, P60 and tax coding.

An application for permission to appeal was submitted to the Upper Tribunal stating that the sponsor clearly earned the required funds. The Immigration Rules required that the sponsor earned �24,800 per annum and it was submitted that he earned in excess of this in the six months prior to the application which was lodged on 27 th February 2013. It was submitted that the sponsor�s gross income in the relevant year was �24,960 per annum.

The employer clearly wrote a letter clarifying and confirming the sponsor�s employment and presented a P60, payslips and Inland Revenue letters.

Further issue was taken with the language certificate. The British High Commission suspended all the circumstances issued by the City & Guilds for a temporary period and all applicants who had passed from City & Guilds were victims. As a result, following the British High Commission�s advice, the principal appellant did re-sit the test and passed and was issued with certificates. It was wrong for the Entry Clearance Officer to assess the applicant�s level of English through telephone.