[2025] UKUT 00229 (IAC)

The applicant is a Sri Lankan national who is thirty five years old. On 29 March 2024, he made an application for entry clearance under Appendix Skilled Worker of the Immigration Rules. He wished to enter the United Kingdom so that he could work as a Retail Manager. He was sponsored by a limited company, which had provided a Certificate of Sponsorship (“CoS”). The letter which accompanied the application stated that the applicant’s job was at the appropriate skill level and that he would be paid a salary of £28,000 per annum. It was submitted that the vacancy was a genuine one and that there were no adverse considerations which warranted refusal on suitability grounds.

The letter also stated that the applicant met the English Language requirement because he had “provided his IELTS test report (dated 22 March 2024) and [had] achieved a CEFR level B1 with an overall band score of 5.0”, in accordance with the requirement in paragraph 7.1 of Appendix SW. The IELTS certificate was provided with the application.

I should mention two other aspects of the letter which accompanied the application. The first is that the applicant’s solicitors expressly invited the Entry Clearance Officer to accept that the Immigration Rules which applied to the application were those which were in force before 4 April 2024. Reference was made in that connection to the transitional provisions in HC590.

The second point is that the applicant’s solicitors invited the ECO to consider exercising her discretion outside the Immigration Rules in the event that the application was refused under the Rules. Relevant authority was cited and it was submitted that consideration outside the Rules was warranted because the applicant “will be providing much needed labour to the UK’s economy which is now in recession – it is entirely in the public interest that he is granted permission to enter the UK.”