dependant family member of child

We have a few of these cases where we are arguing the 3rd country National parent of an EU child (both with pre settled status) is dependant family member of the child through parents earnings. (my parent has some other income in the form of maintenance payments from ex husband in Italy) but main source of income is from her work.

My case was heard on 05/06/2023 but as yet we have had no decision. The other cases we have are not yet listed.

We have made a complaint to the Tribunal Service but still no decision notice.

I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing difficulty/delay with decisions from the first tear tribunal in such cases?

and if their is any advice on forwarding the case?

There are two seemingly unrelated parts to this question.

I think what you are gunning for in terms of your EU law argument is a Chen style derivative right to reside - i.e. the right to reside enjoyed by the primary carer of a self-sufficient child. These rights had fallen into irrelevance due to the UK’s insistence on the ‘comprehensive sickness insurance’ requirement as a necessity to establish self-sufficiency but as that requirement was unceremoniously dumped by the CJEU in VI v HMRC (C‑247/20), there is more scope for these rights to be used.

The problem that you seem to have is that you do not suggest that the third country national has themselves made any application to the EUSS. Without that, any right to reside they might have under EU law is academic. There is no ‘mirroring’ of pre-settled or settled status, so their association with a child who has it won’t do any good.

In relation to the issue of delay; I doubt that this has anything to do with any special feature of the topic of your case. It may be that the judge has found the case difficult to decide and is taking their time to prepare a reasoned decision. If the case was stayed, you would have been told.

It’s not really appropriate to complain to HMCTS about issues with a judge. Judges don’t work for HMCTS. Complaints about conduct can be made to the regional judge or the chamber president. I would note however that the Judicial Conducts Investigation Office guidance is to the effect that they would only normally regard unjustified delay beyond 3 months as a conduct matter - and you are not there yet.

Delay of less than that could theoretically be challenged by judicial review, but it would really need to be an extraordinary case where a judge’s failure to give a timely decision could itself be categorised as an error of law.

Really I would think that a polite email asking for the judge to be chased up about the delay is all that is called for.

Thanks for your response Elliot,

Yes it is a Chen style case. Both Parent and child have pre-settled status so we are not concerned that the arguments are not applicable.

I suppose we will have to wait for the judge to come to a decision on this one. But we are expecting it go further anyhow.

Regards