VA030582015

The appellant appeals to the Upper Tribunal from the decision of the First-tier Tribunal dismissing his human rights (Article 8 ECHR) appeal against the decision of an Entry Clearance Officer dated 28 September 2015 to refuse to grant her entry clearance as a family visitor. The First-tier Tribunal did not make an anonymity direction, and I do not consider that such a direction is required for these proceedings in the Upper Tribunal.

On 20 February 2017 Designated First-tier Tribunal Judge Macdonald gave his reasons for granting the appellant permission to appeal from the decision of Designated Judge McClure, who dismissed the appellant's appeal in a decision promulgated on 17 January 2017:

"The grounds of application are lengthy but essentially say that the Judge's decision was based on speculation as opposed to the actual evidence.

The Judge noted the family unit had a number of problems in seeking to cope with the needs of all the family members which presents certain difficulties (paragraph 28). Looking at all the evidence the Judge found that if the appellant were allowed to come to the United Kingdom she would remain here when it was planned that the appellant would come here to help the sponsor and his family to cope in a very difficult situation.

While the Judge did note the appellant's personal circumstances (paragraph 40) it is arguable that the reasons given are based very much on suspicion of what might occur and that further reasoning is required to justify the conclusion reached. The Judge appears to be accepting that the appellant does wish to visit her father's grave (paragraphs 44-45)."