OA031892014 & Ors.

This is the appellants' appeal against the decision of Judge Caswell made following a hearing at Bradford on 14 th October 2014.

The sponsor came to the UK in 2006 as a religious worker married at that time to the first appellant Satinder Kaur. He returned to India for visits but divorced her in 2008 and married an English woman. That marriage broke down in early 2013 and the sponsor remarried the first appellant.

She applied for entry clearance with their three children, the three other appellants, but was refused on the grounds that the sponsor could not meet the maintenance requirements of the Rules. The Entry Clearance Officer, as a result of checks conducted with colleagues in HMRC was not satisfied that the sponsor was employed as claimed, since HMRC had no record of him paying tax during the relevant period.

Shortly before the hearing the Presenting Officer raised a second issue, namely the subsistence of the marriage.

"On the issue of the subsistence of the marriage I accept that there is an odd background here. The Sponsor certainly did divorce from the first-named Appellant, married an English woman, and then was divorced from her and remarried the first-named Appellant. There is a confusing history of the whereabouts of two of the children as well with the application for entry clearance being made at a time when their mother remained in India in the same village as the children yet the Sponsor was saying at the time that he had sole responsibility for them.