IA001662021

             The Appellant appeals with permission against the decision of First-tier Tribunal Judge Aldridge ("the judge"), dated 27 July 2021. By that decision the judge dismissed the Appellant's appeal against the Respondent's refusal of his application for a residence card as the durable partner of an EEA national (Ms D Floarea, "the Sponsor").

             The Appellant is a citizen of India, born in 1965. The application for the residence card was made on 16 January 2020 and the refusal was issued on 3 December of that year. In essence, the Respondent concluded that the Appellant was not in a durable relationship with the Sponsor.

             Unfortunately the paragraph numbering of the judge's decision has gone awry and restarts at "1" on three separate occasions. In light of this and in order to avoid confusion, I will not refer to specific paragraph numbers in my decision.

             In addition, the judge found that the gap in knowledge was exacerbated by the Appellant's ignorance of the money paid by the Sponsor to the landlord in respect of the rented property. An important passage in the judge's decision reads as follows:

"I acknowledge that the appellant has exhibited numerous documents that appear to show cohabitation in respect of tenancy agreements, television licence and joint bank statements etc. However, I do not find that they are documents that demonstrate a committed and durable relationship and do not tip the balance in favour of the appellant when considering the evidence in the whole and against the failure to demonstrate an intimacy of relationship in respect of the knowledge regarding the sponsor's sister."