OA076682015

This is an appeal by the Entry Clearance Officer. I shall refer to the Entry Clearance Officer throughout as such and to Mrs R U as the claimant in order to avoid confusion.

The claimant is a citizen of Pakistan who was born on 3 October 1989. She applied for entry clearance to enter the UK as a partner under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules. By way of a decision dated 25 March 2015 the Entry Clearance Officer refused the claimant's application.

The claimant appealed against that decision to the First-tier Tribunal. In a decision promulgated on 28 November 2016 First-tier Tribunal Judge Mill allowed the claimant's appeal. The First-tier Tribunal allowed the appeal on the basis of Article 24(3) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The appeal was also allowed on Article 8 grounds.

The Entry Clearance Officer applied for permission to appeal against the First-tier Tribunal's decision. On 1 August 2017 First-tier Tribunal Judge Frankish refused permission to appeal. The Entry Clearance Officer renewed the application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal and on 31 August 2017 Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge McGeachy granted permission to appeal.

The grounds of appeal assert that the First-tier Tribunal erred by following the case of Abdul (section 55 - Article 24(3) Charter) [2016] UKUT 106 (IAC) . It is also asserted that, in this case, even if Abdul is correctly decided the appeal has no EU law aspect at all. The claimant seeks, as a non-EEA national, to join her British husband who has never exercised any free movement rights. It is asserted that this is plainly outside any scenario where the UK as a member state is implementing Union law.