Case No. UKUT-00043(IAC)

81. Dealing firstly with the appellant’s situation under the Immigration Rules, we regard it as manifest that she did not meet the Minimum Income Requirements (MIR) of the Immigration Rules either at the date of application or decision. Indeed, so much was conceded by the appellant in the skeleton argument. She had failed to provide requisite documents pursuant to Appendix FM-SE. The only point raised to suggest that this was not so was to reiterate that the sponsor had produced correspondence from the HMRC confirming that he had been paid £19,612 for the financial year April 2016 to April 2017 (we note that there was also a P60 provided relating to that same year), but (as was properly noted by Judge Burns) HMRC correspondence is not included in the relevant evidential requirements in FM-SE. Furthermore, both at the date of application and decision there were discrepancies in the evidence the sponsor had submitted in the form of payslips and bank statements. Judge Burns had also found that there were such discrepancies. In the grounds of appeal before us in this case, there has been no real attempt to explain or dispute these discrepancies. Nevertheless, we do not doubt, and we do not understand Mr Lindsay to doubt, that the sponsor was in employment during the times claimed. But as to the level of his income for the requisite periods, the appellant has clearly failed to discharge the onus of proof on her to show that the sponsor had met the evidential requirements necessary to establish that his gross income exceeded 18,600 either at the date of application or decision or before the First-tier judge. Nor, as we will come to in a moment, can he meet the MIR now