I have to go to court next week! What should I expect??

[sqaush]

Hi,

My fiance (currently in India) applied for a fiance visa in September 2011. It was refused 3 months later.

Heres the situation -

He spent 4 years living in the UK with a previous marriage. He had difficulties in his marriage which resulted in his wife moving out of their home though they remained married and hoped that their relationship could be saved. They continued to work on their relationship.

With this in mind, he applied for ILR. He stated in his ILR application that he and his wife were living seperately but the marriage was still subsisting. Neither of them knew that not living together would affect the outcome of the application. They assumed that as they were still married he could apply for ILR.

After the application was refused, the stress of this caused their marriage to break down completely and he decided he would return to India when his visa expired which was approx 6 months later (he was not told to leave before then). He and his ex-wife then divorced.

Meanwhile, during the time he was going through the divorce, he and I became very close as friends and this soon developed into a serious relationship.

We decided to get engaged the month before his visa expired and he had to return to India and intended for him to return on a fiance visa so we could marry in the UK. I realise this all seemed to happen very quickly but I am certain our love for eachother is 100% genuine.

His visa was refused because the ECO said he made false representations in relation to his previous ILR application. It also led the ECO to doubt our intentions to marry and live together (despite the substancial amount of evidence we provided to prove that we are genuine).

We lodged an appeal and I have to attend court in Wales, UK next week.

My question is, what can I expect from the court hearing? Will the judge look at this fairly (as in see that my fiance did not intentionally deceive anyone but genuinely didn't know that he and his ex had to be living together)?

Does anyone have any experience of attending a court hearing that they could share with me?

Thank you

[AcrossBorders]

if he stated in his ILR application that he was not living with this wife at the time... how did they find out otherwise... and claim it to be deceit?

[sqaush]

Basically, he was interviewed for the fiance visa application. In his interview, he was asked when his previous marriage broke down. He said 2009 (which is when she moved out) but the application for ILR was made in 2010.

He explained the whole situation in his interview but they have only focused on this one point and they believe that he was lying to them when he said that his relationship was subsisting at the point of applying for ILR.

[vinny]

His visa was refused because the ECO said he made false representations in relation to his previous ILR application.

Unless the ECO is claiming deception in the current application, false representation in a previous application is not a reason for refusal.

See also SET1.7 What evidence is required of 'intention to live together'?