RN (India) & others v Entry Clearance Officer
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Laws |
| Judgment Date | 08 October 2009 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] EWCA Civ 1139 |
| Docket Number | Case No: C5/2008/0193 |
| Date | 08 October 2009 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
[2009] EWCA Civ 1139
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE ASYLUM & IMMIGRATION TRIBUNAL
Before: Lord Justice Laws
Case No: C5/2008/0193
[AIT No: TH/09079/2004; TH/09081/2004; TH/09082/2004; TH/09084/2004; TH/09086/2004]
Mr Z Jafferji (instructed by Messrs Sultan Lloyd) appeared on behalf of the Appellants.
Mr Palmer (instructed by Treasury Solicitors) appeared on behalf of the Respondent.
Lord Justice Laws:
I shall not give a narrative judgment in this case. It is enough to say that one of the issues that arises is whether these applicants, who are siblings, were part of their father's household for the purposes of Regulation 8(2)(a) of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 and Article 3(2)(a) of the Citizens Directive.
The issue involves a question about delay. The applicants' case is that they were living together with their father, and indeed their mother, in the same household in India until October 2001 when the father left for Europe, was a short time in Portugal and came then to this country. He, I should say, is a Portuguese citizen. The applicants did not seek entry clearance to join him for a year or so, until October 2002. There is therefore a question whether they could be said to be members of the same household, present tense, at the time of that application.
There is jurisprudence, not least a dictum of Buxton LJ in KG and AK [2008] EWCA Civ 13, confirmed more recently in Bigia [2009] EWCA Civ 79, that where it is claimed that an applicant is a member of the same household as a sponsor, it must be shown that that was factually the case, at any rate very recently, it being acknowledged that since the sponsor will have left the family to come to this country there will have been some lapse of time. Here the lapse of time was a year.
Mr Jafferji for the applicants wishes to submit that that does not negate or extinguish earlier status as members of the same household. He tells me, and of course I accept, and indeed it is confirmed by Mr Palmer for the Council, that there...
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