OA204212013

On 26 July 2013, Ms Nguyen, who was born on 18 April 1985 and who is a citizen of Vietnam, applied for entry clearance to join her partner, Mr Roy Bates, a British citizen living in the UK. On 28 October 2013 that application was refused.

The Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) refused that application under the partner route of appendix FM to the immigration rules because he was not satisfied Ms Nguyen met the financial requirements. When Ms Nguyen appealed that immigration decision she submitted evidence of her sponsor�s financial circumstances and an Entry Clearance Manager (ECM) conceded that those requirements were in fact met at the date of decision. However, the ECM identified that she had not shown how she met the provisions of GEN.1.2 of appendix FM and therefore the decision to refuse was maintained.

Having considered the grounds of appeal and after hearing from both Mr Mills and Mr Bates, I am satisfied that the First-tier Tribunal�s determination contains an error on a point of law because Judge Newberry failed to make a finding as to how Ms Nguyen met the provisions of paragraph GEN.1.2 of appendix FM. Furthermore, I find that this failure is material to the outcome because if she did not meet any of the provisions of GEN.1.2 then she could not benefit from the partner route of appendix FM.

For these reasons, therefore, I find that the determination not only contains a legal error but that error is such that the decision must be set aside and remade.

The issue is whether Ms Nguyen can meet any of the requirements of paragraph GEN.1.2. At the date of decision, the provisions of GEN.1.2 were: