Spouse visa rejected. A bizzare situation. Please HELP

Hi

My wife's visa application was rejected on the grounds that I (sponsor and UK citizen) have been in current employment for 2 months only and have been on job seekers allowance as recently as Nov 2005. The ECO also stated that "no evidence is provided regarding the duration of the contract. I am not satisfied that your sponsor is in regular employment or has continued recieveing a regular wage or about the prospects of security"

Here is my work history.

I was unemployed for 2 weeks after I returned from Pakistan where I got married in Oct 2005. I got a temporary contract for 3 months at the end of Nov 2005 that finished on 28th of Feb 2006. A got a new contract in a different company through an agency which was a temporary on-going nature. My wife applied for visa on 24th of May. With the application, I attached 5 months wage slips (3 from the previous employer and 2 from the current).

The situation right now is that I am still at the same job but this contract will finish on 29th of Sept. So, I have wage slips for the past 6 months with my current employer.
I have savings in my bank of around £5000 now (origionally it was £3000) and have a further £2700 available to me in my credit-card.

Can anyone please answer the following question because I did not see them any where on the forum.

1) Should I appeal with the additional wage-slips or should I make a fresh application?

2) If I make an appeal, would I need to attach the wage-slips with that? The reason I am asking this is because I see that appeals can take a lot of time and meanwhile, if I decide to make a fresh application, I would not have these wage-slips.

3)I currently get Tax Credit because my earnings in the last financial years were too low. I dont think this counts as Public Funds?

4) Do I need to explain to the ECO that my current contract runs out at the end of september or 6 months wage-slips would suffice and there is no need to give this extra information?

5) Most importantly, should I reapply or should I lodge an appeal? Because I think if the ECO sees in the appeal that enough information has been given, they do not proceed the appeal for hearing and this might turn out to be quicker than a fresh application.

I also do not understand why the ECO did not consider the 3 months temp. contract job I did as part of my work history.

Thanks

Maktar, before wading through your list of questions, can you say what sort of work you do? Also what sort of earnings you get from that work? And given that your current contract expires in a little over a month, how easy will it be for you to get a further contract from either your current employer or someone else?

I am just trying to gauge whether it is common for people to be doing your sort of work to work on contracts? Also whether your contract is for low skilled work such as cleaning, earning National Minimum Wage, or some high-powered computer consultant on £1000 a day? Or somewhere in between those situations?

I work for NTL through an agency. My earnings amount to around £280 per week (£225 after tax etc). It would be easy for me to get a new similar job because of the experience I have but I have not applied or looked for a job as yet because I am thinking of going on a honeymoon after my contract runs out.
My job title is Provisioning Rep. and it is a semi-skilled/low skilled job.

John thanks a lot for replying and I vow to contribute to this forum regularly because of the help I got from now on.

Maktar, using the numbering in the opening post in this topic :-

1. I think in the first instance you should email the Manager at the Visa Section and ask that Manager to review the decision of the ECO. Make the point that as regards "I am not satisfied that your sponsor is in regular employment or has continued receiving a regular wage or about the prospects of security" is not a ground for finding the financial test has been failed. It merely needs to be shown that your wife will not need to claim certain Public Funds, and as long as that can be shown, anything else is irrelevant. You could add that the nature of the work you do means that you do not expect to be unemployed .... renewal contracts easily obtainable.
2. See 1. above .... see if that works first. When was the rejection decision handed down? How long ago?
3. Tax Credits are actually within the definition of Public Funds but you claiming Tax Credits is not a problem. It is your wife that will have the condition on her visa, not you.
4. Again I think, see 1. above.
5. Same

Your email to the Manager could point out that you are in receipt of regular employment income, you will easily be able to get renewal contracts, that you earn enough to support yourself and also your wife when she gets to the UK, and in any case you have savings you can fall back on if necessary.

Thus the conclusion should be ... the financial test is passed! Hopefully the Manager will agree! And overturn the ECO's decision.

Thanks again for replying.

Is there anyother option apart from e-mailing the manager? I am asking this because there was another objection for the refusal which I thought was not important for this posting. The other objection was that I did not provide my origional marriage certificate along with the translation (which did not have both our signatures on it). If I e-mail to them about the 2nd objection, the 1st one will stay.

About when the visa was refused, my wife collected the passport today.

To quote from the refusal letter, first objection was

"I note that your sponsor was in reciept of benefits until nov 2005 and has only been in his employment since march 2006, 2 months prior to your entry clearance application. I also note that his current employment is a temporary worker with NTL. No evidence has been provided as to the nature of this contract. I am, therefore, not satisfied that your sponsor is in regular emploment or has or will continue to recieve a regular wage or the prospects of security."

secondly

"You have failed to provide your origional "nikah nama" and the translation does not contain the signatures of the bride and bridegroom. I am satisfied that you and your sponsor have contracted a valid marriage."

Taking all this into account, what should or could be done?

Thanks for the quick reply again.

"You have failed to provide your origional "nikah nama" and the translation does not contain the signatures of the bride and bridegroom. I am satisfied that you and your sponsor have contracted a valid marriage."

Is that right? Or have you omitted a word? Should "I am satisfied ...." be "I am not satisfied ...."

You did not think that important? Sounds like the ECO doesn't think you and your wife are even married!

The financial matter? I have nothing to add. I still think that an email to the Manager of the Visa Section is a useful ploy to use. But do provide the proof of the marriage!

I know it is a big matter but we have the origional "nikah nama", so that solves the first objection. Can I e-mail the manager saying that I have the origional marriage certificate and what you have told me about the job situation? And how will they ask us to produce the nikah nama?

and secondly, what if that fails? Should a fresh application be made or an appeal be lodged?

Cheers

Just to throw a spanner in the works here but.......

I know of several people who have recently made successful applications for spouse settlement visas from Islamabad and none of them has provided signatures on the translated nikkah nama. The original marriage certificate has both the bride and grooms signature but the translated version doesn't have any signatures. Mine was also like that and the ECO never mentioned anything about it in the refusal (we were refused on other grounds)

However, the translated marriage certificates that I mention were all attested by a public notary. Perhaps that's what the ECO means?