IA162822013

This is an appeal by the Secretary of State for the Home Department against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal allowing Ms Enahoro�s appeal against a decision to refuse to issue her with a residence card as the family member of an EEA national, under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 (�the EEA Regulations�). For the purposes of this decision, we shall refer to the Secretary of State as the respondent and Ms Enahoro as the appellant, reflecting their positions as they were in the appeal before the First-tier Tribunal.

The appellant is a citizen of Nigeria, born on 21 November 1970. On 14 September 2012 she made an application for a residence card as the spouse of an EEA national who was exercising treaty rights in the United Kingdom. She claimed to be the spouse of a Slovakian national, Jan Tokar, whom she had married by way of a proxy marriage under Nigerian customary marriage laws on 15 January 2012.

The appellant�s grounds of appeal before the First-tier Tribunal asserted that the marriage was valid in the United Kingdom because it was valid in the place where it was celebrated, namely Nigeria. It was asserted further that the appellant was in a durable relationship with her EEA national spouse. The grounds also raised Article 8 of the ECHR.

The appellant�s appeal was heard by First-tier Tribunal Judge Tootell on 7 January 2014. The appellant attended and gave oral evidence. Her EEA national spouse was not present and was said to be in Bradford, further to a disagreement they had had just before Christmas. She was nevertheless content to proceed with the appeal in his absence. She gave evidence that she had been in a relationship with her husband since June 2010 and that they had started cohabiting in 2012, after the wedding. Her husband�s cousin and her own parents had been present at the wedding in Lagos.

The respondent sought permission to appeal that decision to the Upper Tribunal on the grounds that the judge had failed to follow the approach in Kareem (Proxy marriages - EU law) Nigeria [2014] UKUT 24 with respect both to the consideration of the recognition of the marriage under Slovakian law and to the validity of the marriage under Nigerian law.