Gherson wins appeal against fiancée refusal

A client of this firm has succeeded in his appeal against an Entry Clearance Officer's refusal of his application for a visa to come to live with his fiancée, a British national living in the United Kingdom.

The visa application had been refused because the Entry Clearance Office doubted the applicant's intentions.  Explaining this - the Entry Clearance Officer made reference to the applicant's previous stay in the UK as a student, when it was said that he had exceeded (although not, it appears, to any substantial degree) the number of hours he was permitted to work.

The Immigration Judge heard evidence from the applicant's fiancée in the UK.  He noted that the applicant disputed the extent to which he'd exceeded the number of hours he was allowed to work when he had been a student - but in the Immigration Judge's view this had no bearing on the crucial question in the appeal, which was whether the applicant sincerely intended to live permanently with his fiancée.

Sadly the invocation of apparently irrelevant facts to support a decision to refuse an application for entry clearance is not unusual.  However Immigration Judges are also aware of this and as this case shows skilled professional representation can result in such decisions  being overturned on appeal.