IA018592016

The appellant is a Bangladeshi national who was born on 23 October 1986. He appeals against a decision which was issued by the First-tier Tribunal on 2 July 2018, dismissing his appeal against the respondent's refusal of his application for leave to remain outside the Immigration Rules.

Permission to appeal was sought from the First-tier Tribunal. Two grounds were advanced. By the first, it was submitted that the judge had 'failed to appreciate the fact the decision of the respondent was confined to Immigration paragraph 322(1) and not related to Article 8 rights or Immigration Paragraph 276ADE'. By the second, it was submitted that the judge had 'failed to consider the fact that the respondent's decision denying opportunity to find a new sponsor was unfair: fettering discretion'. Permission to appeal was refused by Judge Boyes on 2 October 2018.

The appellant then made an application to the Administrative Court under CPR 54.7A. The grounds were settled not by the appellant's solicitors but by leading counsel. It was submitted that the appellant only needed a short period of time with leave to remain in order to obtain a 'formal CAS' and that the issue of law was 'the extent to which a so-called "near miss" under the Immigration Rules can be relevant to the decision-making under A8 of the ECHR.' It was submitted that the judge's assessment of proportionality was clearly flawed in that:

(i) The judge had failed to consider, in accordance with Rhuppiah [2018] UKSC 58 ; [2018] 1 WLR 5536 , whether the 'little weight' provisions in Part 5 NIAA 2002 should have been overridden by the particularly strong features of the appellant's private life.

(ii) The judge had characterised the appellant's private life unfairly in concluding that he was not in the middle of a course of study.