UI2023002187 & Ors

       For the sake of clarity and consistency, we will refer in this determination to the Entry Clearance Officer as "the Respondent", as he was in the Tribunal below, albeit he is now the Appellant in the Upper Tribunal seeking to challenge the determination of First-tier Judge Black promulgated on 2 March 2023.

       The Appellants made their applications for entry clearance under the EU Settlement Scheme, in reliance on Appendix EU of the immigration rules on 20 August 2021, and were refused in decisions dated 8 March 2022 and 21 April 2022. Their appeals against those decisions were allowed by the First-Tier Tribunal.

       Following Directions made by the Upper Tribunal on 15 August 2023, an error of law hearing was listed and heard on 11 October 2023. On 4 March 2025 the Tribunal wrote to the parties stating that the Upper Tribunal Judge who had presided over the hearing in October 2023 was unwell and that "given the delay in promulgating the decision in this case the President proposes to have the matter reheard before a different judge and listed at the earliest available opportunity".

       We have had the benefit of a new Composite Bundle, a skeleton argument from the Entry Clearance Officer dated 29 August 2023 supplementing the grounds dated 16 March 2023, a skeleton argument on behalf of the Appellants dated 2 October 2023, a further skeleton argument on behalf of the Appellants dated 5 May 2025 (drafted by Counsel who appeared before us) and the Appeal Skeleton Argument which was relied upon in the FTT.

       The matter came before us to determine whether the First-tier Tribunal had erred in law and, if so, whether any such error was material and whether the decision of the First-tier Tribunal should be set aside.