[2024] UKUT 00236 (IAC)

In this application for Judicial Review, the Applicant challenges the Respondent’s refusal of his application for entry clearance to the United Kingdom dated 2 May 2023 (albeit served on 1 June 2023) under the Ukrainian Family Scheme (the “UFS”) and the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (the “HUSS”).

The Applicant is an Afghan national who obtained a visa to study in Ukraine in September 2015 and arrived there on 8 October 2015 shortly after his eighteenth birthday. He studied at the University of Ukraine for a number of years with various visa extensions to 15 August 2020. The Applicant’s visa was cancelled prior to its end date following a new law which required students to leave the country and make a new application for a visa from outside of it. The Applicant could not return to Afghanistan to do so because there was no Ukrainian Embassy there from which to apply and because he feared for his safety on return to Afghanistan. The Applicant remained in Ukraine and on 1 September 2021 he was recognised as a refugee by the UNHCR there. His initial certificate for this expired and he was awaiting a response on his request to extend his refugee certificate at the time of the Russian invasion.

On 25 February 2022, following the Russian invasion in to Ukraine, the Applicant fled first to Poland and then to Germany on 3 March 2022 where he currently remains. The Applicant was granted a visa in Germany on 4 March 2022 which expired on 4 March 2024, but he is in the process of renewing it. In Germany, the Applicant had until very recently been living with his cousin’s son (he now lives in different shared accommodation) and has been supported at times by a small stipend from the German Government and by his brother (“the Sponsor”). He has had part-time employment and has accessed health care in Germany.