OA034962014 & ors

Regulation 12 provides that an Entry Clearance Officer must issue an EEA family permit to a person who is a family member of an EEA national (who is residing in the United Kingdom in accordance with the 2006 Regulations) where (inter alia) the applicant will be joining the EEA national in the UK. The burden of proof of establishing that rests on the applicant and the standard of proof is the usual civil standard of balance of probabilities.

The Respondent was not satisfied that the relationship between the Sponsor and the Appellants was as claimed. In support of their applications the Appellants had submitted photocopied documents to the Respondent, namely the marriage certificate of the Appellant and the Sponsor and birth certificates for the three children. The Respondent did not attach any weight to those documents because they were photocopies and therefore could not be authenticated.

For these reasons the Judge placed no weight on the documents as showing that the parties were related as claimed. He then went on to deal with the DNA tests and dealt with the DNA evidence at paragraph 12 of his determination where he said:

The documents do not encourage me to attach any weight to any of them. I do not find that the document which purports to be a marriage certificate is genuine and that it demonstrates the first Appellant is married to the Sponsor. I remind myself it records a different date of birth for the first Appellant than in the application form. I do not accept the birth certificates are genuine. I do not accept they are reliable to be used for identity. Consequently, I am unable to attach any weight to the DNA test results.�

He found that the Appellants were not related to the Sponsor as claimed and dismissed the appeal.