New Spousal Visa Application - Formally Denied And Appeal Refused

[AmazonianX]

Dear All, please need help with below.

Dear All,

We acknowledge you for your insightful post and assistance rendered and solutions you provide on this forum.
Due to the harrowing experience we had on a previous application, my wife and sponsor said we should table whole matter rather than addressing the current application about to be submitted.

We will appreciate as always, your contributions, suggestions and advice.

FIRST APPLICATION
Wife was a student, working part time and volunteering to get work experience in her field of study. After our wedding, contacted a solicitor and was told we met other requirements except financial evidence, that 12 months financial evidence and pay slips are required so we shelved any plan for application. (If we had applied at the time we would have scaled through and got a spousal visa effortlessly....but an uninformed solicitor derailed that)

In 2017, wife read that it is only 6month pay slips. We contacted another solicitor who explained better and confirmed 6 months pay slips is enough. To meet the 18,600 threshold, he asked for and calculated my sponsor's student grant (not student loan as per the name this is repayable to Student Finance) and income from her part time work and with this we met the requirement.
Application was filed and submitted; decision was delayed for about 8 months due to MM Lebanon case.
Decision came out and it was denied stating while other requirements were fulfilled sponsor did not meet financial requirements. By this time we already had a baby.

APPEAL
Solicitor said we have grounds for appeal, appeal was filed within 28 days. On day of appeal hearing, HO representative acknowledged that ECO made error by not accepting and computing the student grant but then he argued that on the day of appeal hearing we did not meet financial requirement and as such Judge should refuse the appeal.
Not meeting the financial requirement on appeal hearing day was because wife just finished Uni in July and was waiting to resume job in September (she got full time employment form the place stated earlier where she was volunteering). Solicitor argued on the above point that as per his request for fast hearing and not leaving the appeal as floating we could have gotten an earlier hearing date and not 7 months after filing the appeal and also since we stated in our application that wife was pregnant and the baby already delivered now should be a beneficiary of the outcome of the MM Lebanon case which ab initio was the reason for delayed decision on our application Judge asked wife if any source of income at the moment, she stated Universal credit and that I remit usually £1400-£1800 and sometimes over £2000 monthly for her, baby and home upkeep. Judge asked for evidence but wife could not present anything (she said Judge then looked at the solicitor for about 20 seconds and then said hand are tied because if she i.e.my wife didn't get proper advice as to documentary evidence the court cannot proceed on a case on verbal claims) even though evidence of universal credit payment and the remittances from me are reflected in her bank account monthly.
Few days later, got appeal decision in the post and among other things judge stated that my sponsor claimed she had an employment waiting for her but did not present the employment letter wherein is stated her gross annual income, claimed she is getting Universal credit but no evidence, claimed the appellant (me) send money to her but no evidence, we have savings but no recent bank statements......long and short of it, appeal was denied.
We were shocked that even though ECO's error was admitted i.e. that if not for ECO's error that application would have succeeded but failed on appeal due to 1. Our circumstances on that very day of appeal 2. No chance was given by court (even if it is a recess of 2 hrs wife would have printed electronic copy of her employment letter, get to the bank to print statement) to allow us to substantiate the claims.
Solicitor said we have grounds to proceed to Upper Tribunal, but it is a long process and may take up to 18 months to get a decision. We had already spent nearly 16 months from the filing and to the appeal decision and wife was so devastated and not ready for such tortuous repeat of the Immigration and Appeals Court process.

FAMILY VISA
After appeal failed, i applied for family visit visa. Explained in cover letter to application that i had a settlement visa that was refused, and its appeal failed. The family visit visa was granted, and this enabled me to come spend 6 weeks with my wife and child. Few days after arrival, went to see the solicitor and among other things stated if ''it were other people it is a chance to make an in-country application and it will definitely scale through as we have a child'' but that it is not acceptable of him to tell us to do such.
Tempting situation but as upright individuals, we did not consider this as an option.

CURRENT APPLICATION
Due to the failed appeal, wife took it badly and delayed resuming to her work. She now just accumulated 6 months pay slips meet, has all the other documents in place and our savings of over £20,000.
Now, being that having only exactly 6 months’ pay slips and going on maternity leave, there is worry about if need to mention that she is starting maternity leave. Do note that in last family Visit Visa application, I indicated that wife is pregnant, and I want to be there for delivery as previous one was missed.
My wife/sponsor has exactly 6 months pay slips from an employment she held for same time frame.
The last 2 weeks of the 6 months were paid annual leave (she had 28 days annual leave as per contract so took the 2 weeks paid leave as for the half year she worked with the company).
Last pay slip was yesterday as her maternity leave is to start by Monday and within the 28-day period starting yesterday is when the application will be submitted.

My questions are:

1. Will the exact 26 weeks/6 months pay slips be acceptable by the HO
2. She is pregnant with our second child; do we need to mention or refer to it in our current application (as there will be a break in her employment and income)
3. If yes to the above she is to return to same employment after 9 months maternity leave, do we need to get a letter from the employer specifically detailing when her maternity leave starts and that she will return to them after leave.
4. After the previous refusal (which we will address in our cover letters), applied for and was granted Family Visit Visas and came on several occasions to see my wife and son, i hope this cannot be used against us in the current application?
5. Besides pay slips and employment letter, are there other documents we will need to get from employer to increase the chances of getting a successful application?
6. If not mentioning anything about maternity and baby delivery how do we go about it since the current spousal application will be done after baby's delivery?

Wife is so worried and concerned, cannot go through the headache and arduous process and then a refusal so we look towards ensuring a success. All views and guidance from this forum to ensure this will be greatly appreciated.
If there are clarifications you want to make or questions to aid in guiding us, please do ask.

Thanks.

[CR001]

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