IA/04414/2015

• Status of case: Unreported
• Hearing date: 29 Jul 2016
• Promulgation date: 19 Aug 2016
• Publication date: 2 Mar 2018
• Last updated on: 2 Mar 2018

The decision

Upper Tribunal
(Immigration and Asylum Chamber) Appeal Number: IA/04414/2015


THE IMMIGRATION ACTS


Heard at Field House
Decision & Reasons Promulgated
On 29th July 2016
On 19th August 2016



Before

DEPUTY UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE ZUCKER


Between

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
Appellant
and

NICOLE JUANITA WILLIAMS
(ANONYMITY DIRECTION NOT MADE)
Respondent


Representation:
For the Appellant: Mr S Walker, Senior Home Office Presenting Officer
For the Respondent: Mr A Seelhoff, A Seelhoff Solicitors


DECISION AND REASONS
1. This is an appeal brought by the Secretary of State in respect of the decision of Judge of the First-tier Tribunal Metzer who allowed the appeal brought by the Appellant in the First-tier Tribunal against the decision of the Secretary of State to refuse to grant her further leave to remain in the United Kingdom. The Respondent is a citizen of Dominica whose date of birth is recorded as 31st October 1982.
2. The facts which presented to the judge in the First-tier Tribunal were that the Respondent was pregnant and just about to give birth; it was imminent. Her partner at the time of the hearing, and indeed the decision, had indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom.
3. Not content with the decision to allow the appeal, by Notice dated 1st February 2016 the Secretary of State made application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal on the basis that there was no sufficient reason for the judge to look outside the Immigration Rules.
4. On 27th June 2016 Judge of the First-tier Tribunal Grimmett granted permission having found that it was arguable that Judge Metzer may have erred in his assessment under Article 8 ECHR as it was said not to be arguably not clear why the circumstances referred to, amount to compelling circumstances.
5. Judge Grimmett clearly had in mind the guidance in the case of Singh v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWCA Civ 74 in which the guidance in the case of Nagre was approved of.
6. Mr Walker was very realistic in his submissions to me and rightly so. The effect of the British Nationality Act 1981 is that had the Appellant been required to leave the United Kingdom before she had given birth, the unborn child would not have been able to benefit from the provisions of that legislation and would not have been a British citizen. It was also the case that the Appellant in the First-tier Tribunal was shortly to give birth. Those are clear facts which presented and were in my judgement a sufficient basis for the judge to look outside the Immigration Rules. I say in passing that it is of course entirely a matter for the Secretary of State how much time is granted to individuals who are successful on human rights grounds. The judge was only concerned with the legality of removal but in my judgement there was nothing irrational or perverse about the decision made by the judge. It was open to him to find that those were compelling reasons and indeed I might have found them to be so myself were I seized of the matter in the First-tier Tribunal.
Notice of Decision
7. In the circumstances the appeal to the Upper Tribunal is dismissed.
8. No anonymity direction.

Signed Date 19 August 2016

Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Zucker