IA227372013 & IA227442013

For the purposes of this decision, I shall hereafter refer to the Secretary of State as the respondent and Ms Khatun and Mr Newton as the appellants, reflecting their positions as they were in the appeal before the First-tier Tribunal.

The appellants appealed against those decisions in general terms and, at their request, their appeals were considered on the papers by the First-tier Tribunal. In a determination promulgated on 18 September 2013, First-tier Tribunal Judge Phull dismissed the appeals under the immigration rules, upholding the allegation as to deception. However she allowed the appeals against the removal decisions as being not in accordance with the law.

Permission to appeal was sought by the Secretary of State on the grounds that the section 47 removal decisions were lawful, having been made after 8 May 2013 following the amendments made by section 51 of the Crime and Court Act 2013. Permission was granted on 18 December 2013.

Permission to appeal was also sought by the appellants, on the grounds that there were deficiencies in the document verification report such that it ought not to have been relied upon by the judge. The grounds also mentioned that the appellant was pregnant at the time of the application for permission and had been unable to do many things as a result. Permission to appeal was granted on 21 March 2014 on the grounds that the appellant�s pregnancy arguably explained her failure to engage with the appeal and that the second appellant�s presence had been neglected.

Mr Avery submitted that there was nothing wrong with the document verification report which had not been challenged in the grounds of appeal before the judge. With regard to the Secretary of State�s appeal, the removal decision was lawful.