‘Third party support’ in immigration appeals to be considered by the House of Lords
17/07/2009
The House of Lords have given permission to appeal to four of the Appellants in AM (Ethiopia) & Ors & Anor v Entry Clearance Officer [2008] EWCA Civ 1082. The Court of Appeal ruled in that case that persons seeking to enter the UK as spouses, minor, or adult dependents of persons settled in the UK must be adequately maintained by the person they are seeking to join, and that financial support from ‘third parties’ is not permitted under immigration rules 281, 297 or 317.
> see: http://www.lawreports.co.uk/HouseofLords/decisionresults09.htm
Appellants SA, AM, VS and MI have been given permission to appeal to the House of Lords to determine whether the Court of Appeal’s decision is correct. It is to be argued that the normal meaning of the immigration rules does not exclude such reliance on financial support from other sources, or in the alternative, that the rules must be read down so as to be compliant with Article 8, to permit such support.
The House of Lords hearing is likely to be at the end of 2009.
Further updates will be posted here.
Comment
Practitioners are encouraged to read the Court of Appeal’s judgment closely – whilst disallowing ‘third party support’, the Court nonetheless approved Mr. O’Ryan’s arguments on the concept of ‘joint sponsorship’ in some categories of case, thus avoiding the ‘third part support’ problem, so long as all joint sponsors are named as such on the original application for entry clearance.
See: AM (Ethiopia) & Ors & Anor v Entry Clearance Officer [2008] All ER (D) 150 (Oct); [2008] EWCA Civ 1082 (16 October 2008) > judgment
Rory O’Ryan of GCN appeared for MI in the Court of Appeal instructed by Pete Simm of Jackson & Canter Solicitors . Rory O'Ryan is led by David Pannick QC in the House of Lords.
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