Case No. UKUT-00299-(IAC)

5.The applicant is a citizen of Iraq. He attended the College of Medicine at Baghdad University, qualified as a doctor in 2011 and worked for a time for the Iraqi army. He and his family fled Iraq to the UK in 2016. He claimed asylum, but his claim was refused and an appeal against the refusal was dismissed by the First-tier Tribunal on 10 March 2017. He made further submissions which were refused as a fresh claim, the appeal against which was dismissed on 24 September 2020. The applicant’s wife and family had been listed as dependents to those claims.6.The applicant’s wife, who is also a doctor, subsequently made a claim for asylum in her own capacity, based on her sur place activities. The applicant was listed as a dependent to that claim. While her asylum claim was pending, both she and the applicant applied for permission to work in the medical profession, on 11 and 6 April 2021 respectively. Since neither the applicant nor his wife met the criteria to be granted permission to work under the Immigration Rules concerning asylum seekers’ access to the labour market, they each invited the Secretary of State to exercise discretion in their favour. The Secretary of State exercised her discretion in the case of the applicant’s wife, and she was granted permission to work on 18 May 2021.7.By his request for discretion to be exercised in his favour, the applicant claimed that there were exceptional circumstances, namely his medical qualifications and experience, which, he said, would provide much needed assistance to the NHS at this time.8.There appear to be two decisions refusing the applicant’s application for permission to work.9.The first is dated 14 May 2021. It states:“Thank you for your letter requesting permission to work. You have asked whether you may take employment while your application for asylum is being considered.I have refused your request for permission to work at this stage because you do not have an asylum claim as a main applicant, and there is no provision to grant permission to work to dependents of an asylum seeker even where the claim or further submission has been outstanding for more than 12 months.Therefore you may not take employment in the United Kingdom, nor may you be self-employed or engage in business or professional activity.”10.By a decision dated 2 July 2021, the application was again refused, with the following operative reasoning:“I have refused your request for permission to work at this stage because you are not the main applicant on the asylum claim.Therefore you may not take employment in the United Kingdom, nor may you be self-employed or engage in business or professional activity.”11.It is not clear why there were two, largely identical decisions. The Statement of Facts and Grounds says, at paragraph 9, that the applicant’s permission to work application “was eventually refused on 2 July 2021” without further elaboration. The second decision is the one under challenge.12.Since this application for judicial review was brought, the applicant’s wife was granted asylum. On 24 November 2021, the applicant, as her dependent, was granted leave to remain (and, therefore, permission to work) “in line” with her status. I address whether this renders the claim academic below.