The High Court has refused a judicial review challenge by Monika Walia and Marius Avivarei to the Minister for Justice’s refusal to treat Walia as the durable partner of an EU citizen for residence-card purposes.
Mr Justice Barr delivered judgment on 2 June 2022 in Walia and Avivarei v Minister for Justice and Equality [2022] IEHC 339. The applicants sought to have the Minister’s review decision of 26 April 2021 set aside. The court refused all the reliefs they sought.
Walia, an Indian national, applied in June 2019 to be treated as a permitted family member of Avivarei, a Romanian national working in Ireland under EU treaty rights. She said they had been in a durable relationship since 2016. The judgment records that they had lived together in the UK and later in Ireland, and that they opened a joint bank account in Ireland in 2019. The Minister refused the application in October 2019 and, after review, refused it again in April 2021.
The applicants argued that the Minister had placed too much weight on the absence of joint financial commitments. They also argued that an interview was required because the decision turned on their credibility. The Minister submitted that the decision considered the application as a whole and found there was insufficient evidence of a relationship akin to marriage, not that the applicants had been dishonest.
The judge found that the decision, read as a whole, did not focus exclusively or impermissibly on financial evidence. The applicants had submitted bank statements and some photographs and social-media posts, but little contextual material explaining how the relationship developed. They had not provided a relationship narrative or statements from family or friends. The court said the Minister had engaged with the material that was submitted and acted reasonably in deciding it was insufficient.
The court also rejected the argument that an interview was required. It distinguished a separate case involving an explicit finding that a marriage was one of convenience. Here, the Minister accepted the veracity of the documents and found only that the evidence did not establish a durable relationship akin to marriage. The judge said that was not an adverse credibility finding.
The court therefore refused to set aside the Minister’s decision or grant the other reliefs sought. It directed the parties to file brief written submissions within two weeks on the terms of the final order, costs and any other matters arising. During argument, counsel for the Minister said Walia could make a fresh application if she wished.