VA133282013

The respondent to this appeal is a female citizen of India who was born on the 16 th July 1948. The Entry Clearance Office [ECO] appeals against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Judge Cohen) to allow her appeal against the decision to refuse her application for entry clearance as a family visitor.

The ECO refused the application under paragraph 41 of the Immigration Rules. This was because he concluded that the appellant had failed to prove that she met the requirement under that Rule that she intended to return to India within the period that she had stated in her application (2 months) and, in any event, within a period of 6 months of her arrival in the United Kingdom.

The First-tier Tribunal found as a fact that the appellant did intend to return to India in accordance with her stated intentions, and allowed the appeal on the ground that the ECO�s refusal of entry clearance was not in accordance with immigration rules .

Mr Whitwell reminded me that Article 8 does not provide the Tribunal with a general power to dispense with the requirements of the Immigration Rules, and submitted that there would need to be particularly compelling circumstances to engage its potential operation in A case of refusal to grant entry clearance for the purpose of visiting a family member in the United Kingdom. No such circumstances had been shown to exist in the instant appeal.

The decision of the First-tier Tribunal to allow the appeal against refusal of entry clearance is set aside, and is substituted by a decision to dismiss that appeal.