Case No. UKUT-00043(IAC)

72. Mr Lewis sought to augment his submissions by arguing that in the context of entry clearance applications the Article 8(1) rights to which the appellant is entitled are not confined to family life but also encompass private life. For him this is an important factor because Strasbourg jurisprudence has recognised the right to nationality as an aspect of a person’s private life: see e.g. R (Johnson) v SSHD [2016] 3 WLR 1267 and Genovese v Malta (2014) 58 EHRR 25. He acknowledged that at first sight this limb of his argument was contrary to Court of Appeal authority ( Abbas v SSHD [2017] EWCA Civ 1393), but submitted that the appellant’s case could be distinguished from Abbas in several respects. 73. Whilst we agree with Mr Lewis that Abbas case addresses a significantly different factual scenario (a proposed visit to an uncle) and that it does not address the situation of a British citizen child or indeed any child, we are unable to accept that in this decision the Court of Appeal envisaged any exceptions to its broadly expressed statement at the level of “principle” that the right to respect for private life was not engaged in entry clearance cases. At [18] the Lord Chief Justice stated that: “[t] o accept that the private life aspect of article 8 could require a Contracting State to allow an alien to enter its territory would mark a step change in the reach of article 8 in the immigration context. As a matter of principle it would be wrong to do so.” 74. We consider that this decision binds us not to have regard to the appellant’s right to respect for private life in the context of an entry clearance application. 75. At the same time, we do not view this as precluding us from having regard to the relevance of nationality, since, as we have seen, that is clearly one of the factors that decision-makers must take into account when considering the proportionality of any interference with the right to respect for family life. Indeed, it would be wholly artificial and simply wrong to hollow out, from the material scope of a person’s family life, considerations going to factors such as their nationality and social identity.