IA224932014

This is an appeal brought in relation to a decision of First-tier Tribunal Judge Lucas which was promulgated on 13 July 2015. The appellant applied to the Secretary of State for a derivative residence card in accordance with regulation 15A of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006. The application was made on 15 May 2013. It was refused on the basis that there was insufficient evidence that the appellant was the primary carer of the child in question. That is apparent from the Reasons for Refusal Letter, dated 15 May 2014.

When the matter was before the First-tier Tribunal, evidence was received from the appellant stating that she had sole responsibility for the child, who is a United Kingdom citizen, and various items of documentation were placed before the Tribunal. The appellant's case was that she was not financially supported at all by the father and even if there had been some degree of contact at the time of the child's birth that had soon vanished and, in effect, she was a single parent and solely responsible for bringing up that child.

The relevant provision (regulation 15A) which should have been considered by the First-tier Tribunal Judge required the appellant to demonstrate that she was the primary carer of a UK national.

The difficulty, which is acknowledged as such today on behalf of the Secretary of State, is paragraph 25 of the First-tier Tribunal decision which reads as follows:

"There is simply no evidence in this case that forms any basis for the proposition that the appellant has any derivative rights from an EEA national because there is simply no evidence or basis for the assertion that she had a relationship in the first place. The fact that she has a child with an individual named (on the birth certificate) as the father, does not prove that there was a relationship as required or understood by the EEA Regulations."