VA015602015 & VA015612015

The claimants are citizens of Iraq. The first claimant was born on 1 st July 1939 and the second claimant on 1 st July 1957. They are husband and wife. They wish to come to the UK to visit their family in the UK including the sponsor their son, Mr Shwan Zulal, who is a British citizen residing in the UK. Their application was refused under paragraph 41 of the Immigration Rules on 27 th January 2015. Their appeal against the decisions was allowed by First-tier Tribunal Judge Seifert in a determination promulgated on the 10 th October 2016 on human rights grounds.

Permission to appeal was granted by Upper Tribunal Judge Kebede on 16 th March 2017 on the basis that it was arguable that the First-tier judge had erred in law in failing to give any reasons why the relationship between the claimants and the sponsor went beyond normal emotional ties and thus that there was an Article 8 ECHR family life relationship. It was also arguable that the proportionality assessment was inadequate.

The matter came before me to determine whether the First-tier Tribunal had erred in law.

Firstly, that according to the relevant case law that family life will only exist between adults when there is a dependency which amounts to more than normal emotional ties, and that findings on this basis must be reasoned and supported with appropriate evidence. In this case the First-tier Tribunal has failed to refer to relevant evidence in support of the contended close relationship, and there was no evidence the sponsor had paid for the claimants' trip or made substantial deposits in their banks account.

It was also not properly found that the refusal amounted to an interference with any family life relationship as the sponsor and claimants could meet in a third country, and in any case the sponsor had gone to northern Iraq in March 2015.