IA197052014

For the purposes of this appeal I refer to Mr Obiri as the appellant and the Secretary of State as the respondent, reflecting their positions as they were before the First-tier Tribunal.

The appeal is against the decision promulgated on 21 July 2014 of First-tier Tribunal Judge Woolley which allowed the appeal against the respondent�s decision of 30 April 2014 to refuse to issue a residence card as confirmation of a right to reside in the United Kingdom (UK) as the spouse of an EEA national exercising Treaty rights.

The main dispute here was whether the appellant and a French national had entered into a valid marriage conducted by proxy in Ghana.

The respondent�s grounds of appeal maintained that he had not and relied on the cases of Kareem (proxy marriages - EU law) [2014] UKUT 24 as confirmed by TA and Others ( Kareem explained) Ghana [2014] UKUT 316 (IAC) as it had not been shown that the marriage would be recognised as valid by the French authorities. The First-tier Tribunal judge erred in failing to have regard to those authorities.

In response to the respondent�s arguments, the appellant told me that he had spoken to the French Embassy who had told him that the marriage was valid. He did not have anything in writing from the French authorities or anything else to show that proxy marriages were accepted there. That evidence was not before the First-tier Tribunal, however.