UI2022003262

            This is an appeal by the Secretary of State. For ease of reference, we refer to the parties as they were before the First-Tier Tribunal. The Respondent appeals against the decision of First-Tier Tribunal Judge D Birrell promulgated on 12 May 2022 ("the Decision") allowing the Appellant's appeal against the Respondent's decision dated 30 March 2021 refusing her status under the EU Settlement Scheme ("EUSS") as the durable partner of an EEA national.

            The Respondent refused the Appellant's application on the basis that she had not applied for facilitation of her residence as a durable partner prior to 31 December 2020. Accordingly, the Appellant was not recognised as a family member or extended family member prior to the date of the UK's departure from the EU and could not benefit as such under either the rules relating to EUSS (Appendix EU) or the withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU on the UK's departure from the EU ("the Withdrawal Agreement").

            The Judge accepted an apparent concession by the Respondent that the Appellant did not require a document to establish a right of residence. She also accepted that the Appellant and her partner were in a durable relationship and had been prevented from living together until April 2020 due to the pandemic. The Judge appears to have accepted that the Appellant could for those reasons meet Appendix EU.

            Permission to appeal was granted by First-Tier Tribunal Judge Dempster on 9 June 2022 in the following terms:

"1. The in time grounds assert that the judge made a material misdirection of law by finding that the appellant met the definition of a 'durable partner' in allowing the appeal against the refusal to grant an application under the EU Settlement Scheme.