EA001432020

These are the approved record of the decision and reasons which I gave orally at the end of the hearing on 19 th March 2021.

Both representatives and I attended the hearing via Skype, while the hearing was also open to attend at Field House. The parties did not object to attending via Skype and I was satisfied that the representatives were able to participate in the hearing.

This is an appeal by the appellant against the decision of First-tier Tribunal Judge Trevaskis (the 'FtT'), promulgated on 2 nd March 2020, by which he dismissed the appellant's appeal against the respondent's decision on 12 th December 2019 to refuse to issue him a Residence Card as the EEA family member (spouse) of an EEA (Romanian) national, Ms Herinean (the 'sponsor'), under the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2016.

In essence, the appellant's claims involved the single issue: whether, for the purposes of regulation 2 of the 2016 Regulations, the appellant's marriage to the sponsor was a "marriage of convenience," in the sense of having been entered into for the purpose of using the EEA Regulations in order to circumvent the Immigration Rules.

The respondent regarded the marriage as one of convenience based on inconsistencies in the appellant's and sponsor's accounts during interviews that had taken place on 4th June 2019, relating to: the sponsor's religion, the duration of visits to Romania; the appellant having worked in the UK; the number of asylum claims that the appellant had previously, unsuccessfully made; and the appellant's previous EEA application, together with a number of other inconsistencies.