Administrative Review of your Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa refusal

If your Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa has been refused, you have the option to apply for administrative review of the visa refusal decision. Administrative review is a way of challenging a refusal of a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa under the points-based system. As specialist London Immigration appeal lawyers, administrative review is a process we’re very familiar with, but the requirements can seem complicated to someone unfamiliar with the UK Immigration Rules. Our team of Immigration entry clearance lawyers have put together some explanation around administrative review and how it operates in a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa refusal scenario.

Reasons a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa could be refused

In order to have the best chance of succeeding in the first place with your application for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa, it’s advisable to work with an experienced Immigration solicitor to make sure that you can clearly demonstrate how you meet all the eligibility criteria for this visa route under the points-based system. However, there are occasions when you may not have been able to consult with an Immigration lawyer before submitting your Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa, or you may have missed a critical piece of information when submitting your application. Your visa refusal may be on one of a number of grounds, including:

• The source or accessibility of the funds you propose to invest in the UK;

• That you have not convinced the Home Office that you satisfy the ‘genuine entrepreneur test’;

• Failing to provide the correct documents;

• The ‘general grounds for refusal’ which are included in the UK Immigration Rules

Before completing your application for administrative review, it’s important to understand the reason or reasons why the Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa was refused.

Applying for Administrative Review

If your Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa application is refused, the refusal letter will include details of how you can apply for administrative review. The timescales are short – 28 days from the date you received the decision, if you applied from outside the UK, 14 days if you applied from within the UK (e.g. to extend the visa, or to switch to the Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa from another visa) – or within 7 days if you have been detained.

Decisions are usually returned within 28 days, so you will find out fairly promptly whether the application for administrative review has been successful or not.

Review and not appeal

An administrative review is different to an appeal because it is carried out the Home Office which although the administrative review will be carried out by a different case worker to the one who refused your visa application in the first place. Administrative review is a process by which the new case worker checks the decision to refuse the Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa and makes sure that the decision was made correctly. You can’t submit any new information for consideration in an administrative review – it is purely an exercise to check whether the right decision was made on the basis of the information that was supplied with the visa application.

Appeals, which are carried out by a judge independent of the Home Office, are only available in very limited circumstances. In most cases, administrative review of a visa refusal has replaced appeals.

Applying for a new visa before administrative review is decided

If you make another Immigration or visa application before the administrative review decision has been made, your application for administrative review will be treated as having been withdrawn. If you are in the UK your application for administrative review will also be treated as having been withdrawn if you ask for your passport back or leave the UK.

Options if administrative review fails

If your application for administrative review of the visa refusal decision fails, you can either apply for judicial review of that decision, or, alternatively, submit a fresh visa application. In a fresh visa application, you can work with the best Immigration solicitors you can afford to address all the reasons why your first application for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa were refused. judicial review is a legal process under which a judge will review the decision to refuse the visa following administrative review. There are various procedural steps to follow in order to present a claim for judicial review correctly, and to have the best chances of success, it is advisable to take specialist legal advice.

OTS Solicitors are some of the best Immigration lawyers in London, highly recommended in the Legal 500 for Immigration and Human Rights issues. Their team of top Immigration lawyers and case workers have extensive experience dealing with administrative review on behalf of Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa clients who have been disappointed by a visa refusal. To book an appointment to discuss your Immigration case, call 0203 959 9123.