OA201542012

This is the Appellant�s appeal against the decision of Judge Kelly made following a hearing at Bradford on 21 st June 2013.

The Appellant is a citizen of Iraq born on 21 st January 1986. She applied for entry clearance to come to the UK as a spouse but was refused under paragraphs 281 and 320(7A) of the Immigration Rules.

The initial decision was made in June 2012 but never served. A fresh decision, and the subject of this appeal, was made on 7 th October 2012. The Entry Clearance Officer was not satisfied that the Appellant was married to a person present and settled in the UK nor that she had passed an English language test in speaking and listening from ESOL approved by the Secretary of State for this purpose nor that she intended to live permanently with her partner and that the marriage was subsisting and finally that she would not be maintained adequately in the UK without recourse to public funds.

Judge Kelly found in favour of all aspects of the Appellant�s case save for maintenance. He was satisfied that the couple were lawfully married and that, since a child had been conceived, the marriage was subsisting as at the date of decision and the couple intended permanent cohabitation as spouses. He was also satisfied, in view of the Entry Clearance Manager�s concession that the Appellant�s English language certificate was valid as at the date she sat the test, that those requirements of the Rules were met.

The judge recorded that the Sponsor�s original plan had been to wait with his new bride in Jordan pending the grant of her application for entry clearance. He had been working for Kam Jeans and City Valets and sought and was granted leave of absence from work by his employers for a total of four weeks, three weeks of which were paid. However the processing of the application took much longer than the Sponsor had anticipated.