EA004832018 & EA004862018

The appellants appeal, with permission, against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal dismissing their appeals against the respondent's decisions to refuse to issue them with EEA family permits under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 ("the EEA Regulations") as the sister-in-law and brother-in-law of the EEA national sponsor.

The appellants, sister and brother, are citizens of Pakistan. They applied on 15 June 2017 for an EEA family permit to join the sponsor, Jolanta Iwona Mikulska, a Polish national. The appellants' applications were refused on 30 November 2017 on the grounds that there was no evidence to show that the EEA national was exercising treaty rights in the UK since the evidence supplied indicated that she was no longer in employment. The appellants' applications were refused under regulations 6 and 12 of the EEA Regulations.

In an entry clearance manager review on 20 July 2018 the respondent considered again that the appellants had failed to submit evidence that their EEA national sponsor was currently exercising treaty rights in the UK. It was not accepted that the appellants were family members for the purposes of regulation 14(2), even if permanent residence was as claimed.

The appellants sought permission to appeal that decision to the Upper Tribunal on the grounds that the judge had erred by finding there to be a legal requirement for the EEA national to be a qualified person when it had been accepted she had acquired permanent residence and that the judge had raised concerns not previously raised by the respondent thus depriving the appellants of a fair hearing. The grounds asserted further that the judge had misunderstood the evidence.

In his rule 24 response the respondent requested that the appeal be struck out for want of jurisdiction as there was no right of appeal under the 2016 Regulations for extended family members.