UK visa refusal

If the worst has happened and your UK visa application has been refused by the Home Office, you may have a right to appeal the decision.

You may be able to contest the UK visa refusal by lodging an immigration appeal or administrative review (AR) against the decision these are known as statutory appeal rights and are there to protect against arbitrary decisions.

Both are distinct types of legal remedy and have different procedures and possible outcomes. It is important that if you find yourself with a UK visa refusal to first check what the decision or refusal letter states. This will outline what type of legal remedy you potentially have against the visa refusal, steps you must take and perhaps, most importantly, any time limits that you must comply with, but this will differ depending on whether you are in the UK or not. 

If you are refused a UK visa we recommend that you receive legal assistance as the process can become very complex. 

Administrative Review

AR is more commonly available to a party refused a UK visa, the final arbiter through this process is a different caseworker at the Home Office who took the initial decision to refuse. The decision maker is there to simply review the law and evidence which the original one took. Fresh evidence is not normally allowed and the process is there to determine if there was an error made at the point of refusing the UK visa. Decisions are supposed to be made within 28 days of lodging the AR. The outcome is either the initial UK refusal decision is upheld or overturned, but it is fair to say with the latter this is rare.

Statutory appeal 

Statutory appeal rights in most cases are extremely limited and are usually only on human rights grounds. When a right of right of appeal against a UK refusal is exercised it is overseen by the First-tribunal (Immigration and Asylum).  

This process differs to the AR process as it is to an independent court with an immigration judge making the decision on the UK visa refusal. The applicant is referred to as the appellant and the initial decision maker as the respondent. Formal procedure rules apply to ensure the appeal is brought before an immigration judge in a timely manner with full evidence so that the UK visa refusal can be reviewed by a court and all parties have the opportunity to attend and test it. It can take months for a case to be heard and therefore you should be prepared to wait for the outcome. 

Upper tribunal and judicial review (JR)

In the event neither party is satisfied with the decision of the First-tier tribunal this can be appealed to the Upper Tribunal. Both the appellant and respondent can appeal the Upper Tribunal's to the Court of Appeal and ultimately to the Supreme Court. All of these can amount to a long process depending on how the case progresses through the various stages.

In other instances, it may be necessary to challenge a decision by way of judicial review (JR) to the Upper Tribunal or, in less common cases, the High Court.

It is important to note an individual cannot simply move for JR against a UK visa refusal decision, but has to ensure he has appealed it through one of the process outlined - in other words JR is only available to those who have exhausted their statutory rights of appeal or those who did not have such a right in the first place.

We have considerable experience of assisting clients with AR, appeals and judicial review (JR). You can explore from the options here to read further or contact us to discuss your case and benefit from our experience.