UI2022003560

             The Secretary of State has permission to challenge the decision of the First-tier Tribunal allowing the claimant's appeal against his decision on 11 March 2022 to refuse her settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and Appendix EU of the Immigration Rules HC 395 (as amended).

             The claimant is a citizen of Brazil, and her husband is a Portuguese citizen and thus an EEA national. The claimant's husband has pre-settled status, granted on 8 September 2021, which will expire on 8 September 2026, at which time (if not sooner) he can apply for settled status. He does not yet have a documented permanent right of residence.

             For the reasons set out in this decision, and as explained to the claimant at the hearing I have come to the conclusion that following the Court of Appeal's decision in Celik v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 921 (31 July 2023), the claimant's challenge to the Secretary of State's decision cannot succeed, and that her appeal must be dismissed.

             Mode of hearing. The hearing today took place on a hybrid basis, with Mr Avery appearing by video link and all other parties and the interpreter appearing face to face. The Upper Tribunal provided a Portuguese interpreter for the claimant. Her husband accompanied her to the hearing.

             The main basis of the appellant's case is that she is married to her husband, whom she met in 2009 when she was 14 years old and he was 17. The claimant is 29 now, and her husband is 31 years old.