UI2024002119 & UI2024002121

For the Appellant: Mr M Mohzam of Counsel instructed by Citadel Immigration Lawyers Ltd

              The appellants are brothers, and citizens of Yemen born on 8 May 2005 and 12 November 2008 respectively. The appellants applied on 3 November 2022, for leave to enter the United Kingdom to join their aunt, Badra Abdulmukhtar Yahya Saleh, the sponsor and a British citizen living in the UK, under paragraph 297 of the Immigration Rules.

              At the date of application both appellants were children and claimed their parents were deceased. The respondent refused the appellants' applications, refusing the first appellant on 28 March 2023 and the second appellant on 11 April 2023. The appellants' linked appeals against those refusals were dismissed by First-tier Tribunal Judge Joshi ("the judge") on 10 January 2024, after a hearing on 21 December 2023.

              Although it was open to the judge to observe that there was little supporting evidence, it was at least arguable that if the judge rejected the sponsor's oral evidence, insufficient reasons might have been given for doing so, given the potential vulnerability of the appellants. On this basis it was arguable the First-tier Tribunal Judge had erred in law. Given the poor quality of the grounds however, Judge Canavan noted that the decision to grant permission was borderline.

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