OA046612015

In this appeal the Secretary of State becomes the appellant. However, for the avoidance of confusion and for the sake of consistency, I shall refer to the parties as they were before the First-tier Tribunal.

On 9 th May 2016 Judge of the First-tier Tribunal E B Grant gave permission to the respondent to appeal against the decision of Judge of the First-tier Tribunal McDade in which he allowed the appeal against the decision of the respondent Entry Clearance Officer to refuse entry clearance as a partner in accordance with the provisions of Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules. The appellant is a male citizen of Pakistan born on 1 st July 1990.

Mr McVeety confirmed that the respondent relied upon the terms of the grounds of application and the grant. He pointed out that a grant of leave under Article 8 would not, in any event, have been as valuable to the appellant as a grant of settlement under the Rules. The appellant could have come within the Rules if a fresh application had been made and a valid English language certificate submitted.

In relation to the issue of finance also raised in the refusal, Mr McVeety acknowledged that it had been accepted, before the judge, that the sponsor was earning the required gross annual salary at the time of the decision.

Mr McVeety also contended that it could not be a breach of Article 8 if, as the judge had decided, the appellant could easily meet the requisite English language standard. The appellant was living outside the United Kingdom so nothing would be lost by making a further application. He added that a 'near miss' did not strengthen the human rights claim. He thought that the judge had not identified any compelling circumstances justifying a grant of leave outside the Immigration Rules.