OA076662015

For the Respondents: Mr J Collins, of Counsel, instructed by Howe & Co Solicitors

This is an appeal against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Judge Callender Smith) allowing the applicant's appeal against a decision of the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) made on 24 March 2015 refusing her application for entry clearance as a dependent child to enable her to join her relative (hereafter "the sponsor") in the UK. In this decision, I will refer to the parties as they were before the First-tier Tribunal, the applicant as the appellant and the ECO as the respondent.

The appellant is a citizen of the Philippines. At the date of the respondent's decision she was nine years old. She is the biological child of the sponsor's first cousin and his wife.

In 2008 the sponsor initiated adoption proceedings in the Philippines. The adoption was finalised in 2010, together with consent given to change the appellant's name. The only contact the appellant has had with her biological parents since 2005, was in 2009, when they were present at a hearing in the Philippines.

Finally, whilst the respondent noted the compassionate circumstances raised by the application, she was not satisfied that there were serious and compelling family or other considerations which made exclusion undesirable. The appellant could not therefore meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules ("the Rules") and there were no circumstances constituting exceptional circumstances justifying a grant of leave outside the Rules.