EA004332017 & EA004362017

This is an appeal by the appellants against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal dismissing their appeals against the respondent's decision of 30 December 2016 refusing them an EEA family permit to join their son (the co-sponsor) and their daughter-in-law (the sponsor), a Lithuanian citizen exercising treaty rights in the UK.

The appellants are husband and wife, both citizens of India. The first appellant was born on 20 December 1969 and the second appellant on 10 April 1968. On 17 October 2016 they applied to join their sponsors in the UK. However, the respondent was not satisfied that they could meet the relevant requirements of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 ("the 2006 Regulations") for the reasons set out in [2] of the judge's decision. In short, the respondent was not satisfied that the appellants were dependent on the sponsor or that they qualified as extended family members.

The sponsor did not attend the hearing before the First-tier Tribunal but her husband, the co-sponsor, did attend. He said that his wife was not at the hearing because she had felt unwell that morning and had gone to the Accident and Emergency Department of their local hospital. He did not ask for an adjournment. The judge gave him the opportunity of considering the matter with his counsel who confirmed that he did not want the hearing adjourned but wanted the appeal to go ahead [3].

The co-sponsor relied on his witness statement. He said that his father was not working. Two years previously, he had worked as a chef in a restaurant in Sahiwal, Pakistan [3]. He had been told by his doctor that he was not allowed to do hard work otherwise he would lose his life and his father decided to leave his employment [5]. He had previously worked as a chef in another restaurant for 15 years and when he (the co-sponsor) had married, his father was still working. His father had no savings and his salary was only just enough to live on.

He was asked about his marriage certificate which gave his father's occupation as a retail shop proprietor and he explained that his father also worked part-time in a retail store and added that after 2010 when he was in the UK he did not ask his father everything about his employment. His father had come to the UK with a work permit as a chef in 2010 but had returned to Pakistan because he did not like it here [5]. His parents lived in a house in Pakistan owned by his paternal grandfather and his father was charged rent as otherwise his grandparents would not be able to survive [10].