OA083422015

The appellant appeals to the Upper Tribunal from the decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Judge Rodger sitting at Taylor House on 30 September 2016) dismissing her appeal against the decision of an Entry Clearance Officer to refuse her entry clearance for the purposes of settlement as a child, under the age of 18, of a person present and settled here. The First-tier Tribunal did not make an anonymity direction, and I do not consider that the appellant requires anonymity for these proceedings in the Upper Tribunal.

On 20 March 2017 First -tier Tribunal Judge Baker granted the appellant permission to appeal as it was arguable, in the light of the finding that the appellant's father had died some time previously, that the Judge may have inadvertently erred in not considering the application of Rule 297(i)(d).

The appellant is a national of Zimbabwe, whose date of birth is 8 April 1997. Just before her 18 th birthday, she applied for entry clearance to join her mother in the UK.

On 1 April 2015 an Entry Clearance Officer in Pretoria (post reference: Pretoria\1203498) gave his reasons for refusing her application by reference to Rule 297. He acknowledged that she had stated that her father was deceased, and that she had submitted a death certificate to substantiate this. The death certificate showed that he had passed away in March 2003.

In her VAF, she stated that her sponsor was registered blind on 19 January 2012, and she did not work in the UK. The documents that she submitted showed that her sponsor was in receipt of public funds. She said that she wanted to join her sponsor in the UK so that she could improve her quality of life and assist her with her day-to-day activities. So she wanted to relocate to the UK in order to care for her sponsor, rather than out of necessity due to her own living conditions in Zimbabwe.