OA151162012 & OA151182012

The Appellant in this appeal is the Secretary of State. The Respondents are DC and KC (twin siblings born 15 th January 1999) and who are citizens of Zimbabwe. For ease of reference, throughout the determination I shall refer to DC and KC as �the Appellants� and the Secretary of State as �the Respondent�.

The Respondent seeks a review of the decision of a First-tier Tribunal Judge (Judge Turnock) who in a determination promulgated on 20 th June 2013, allowed the Appellants� appeals against the Respondent�s decision made on 11 th July 2012, refusing them entry clearance as the dependent children of their mother Mrs SK �the Sponsor� a woman now settled here.

The Sponsor on behalf of the Appellant�s made application for them to join her as her dependent children. The Respondent refused the application on 11 th July 2012 as the Appellants were unable to meet the financial requirements of the Immigration Rules under paragraph 297. There was no evidence that the Sponsor was in employment; indeed she was in receipt of a host of benefits including a student grant, student allowance and job seekers allowance.

When the appeal came before Judge Turnock, he dismissed the appeals under the Immigration Rules but allowed them under Article 8 ECHR. The Respondent sought and was granted permission to appeal.

The main grounds seeking permission stated that the Judge erred in taking into account post-decision evidence when assessing proportionality under Article 8. Further having found that the Appellants could not meet the Immigration Rules because of a lack of finances, he should have given weightier consideration, to the public interest element of proportionality. UT Judge Reeds granted permission and the relevant part of that grant reads as follows,