Immigration Refusals and Appeals
Immigration refusal and appeals are in the news at the moment. Each day we read about the latest twist and turns in the case of the tennis star, Novak Djokovic and his Australian visa. In this article our immigration solicitors look at the UK immigration rules on immigration refusals and appeals.
UK Online and London Immigration Solicitors
For advice on an immigration appeal or on any aspect of immigration law call the expert London immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.
Has your visa application been refused?
Has your UK visa application been refused? You may think that it may be easier to get into Australia or any other country than the UK. Alternatively, you may want to consider:
- Other UK visa options with different eligibility criteria. For example, applying for a start-up visa rather than an innovator visa if your business plan did not meet the scalability criteria for an innovator visa. Alternatively, applying for a sole representative visa rather than applying for a business visitor visa if your visitor visa was refused as your planned business activities did not fall within the allowed permissible business activities under the visitor visa immigration rules and you want to set up a branch of your overseas based business in the UK.
- Appealing the refusal of the visa. Depending on the reasons for the visa refusal you may have a right of appeal or you may be able to ask for an administrative review of the Home Office decision.
It is best to get urgent legal advice so you do not go down the wrong route by either trying to appeal an immigration decision where there is no right of appeal or where you have no reasonable prospects of appeal success. That’s because it is better to focus on a new immigration application if that is your best option. Alternatively, immigration lawyers may recommend a delay before you make a fresh application to bolster the chances of your securing a visa.
Do you have a right of appeal against a Home Office immigration decision?
Only some types of immigration applications carry a right of immigration appeal if your application is refused by the Home Office. Rights of appeal are time limited so it is important to quickly check whether your visa refusal carries a right of appeal so that, if you wish to do so, you can pursue an immigration appeal.
In broad terms you can appeal an immigration decision where:
- You applied for a health and care worker visa.
- You applied for a frontier work permit.
- You sought and were refused asylum.
- Your protected status or your refugee status was revoked.
- The application relates to the EU Settlement Scheme.
- Your immigration application included a human rights claim as part of the application.
Even if you do not have a right of appeal against an immigration refusal you may be able to ask the Home Office to conduct an administrative review of the decision to refuse the application.
Does my immigration application include a human rights claim so I have a right of appeal?
When a visa applicant receives a refusal letter, they should be told by the Home Office if they have a right to appeal the decision. If you think that your immigration application included a human rights claim but the Home Office has not said that you have a right of appeal then speak to immigration solicitors to check your immigration appeal rights.
If you ask an immigration lawyer to prepare your visa application for you then they will try to ensure that your application includes a clear human rights claim (where appropriate) and the human rights argument is fully pleaded. That way there can be little risk of dispute as to whether you have a right of appeal or not. If you did not ask an immigration solicitor to prepare your visa application then specialist immigration lawyers can check to see if you do have a right of appeal based on a human rights claim in your original application (even if the claim isn’t obvious to you) and they can help you with an appeal against the immigration refusal.
You should not try to circumvent the immigration rules and make a human rights claim in your visa application where, in reality, there is no human rights claim. That is because the immigration rules state a human rights claim can be certified as ‘clearly unfounded’. If your appeal on the basis of your human rights is certified as clearly unfounded you can only pursue your appeal from outside the UK. If you do not agree that your human rights claim is clearly unfounded then you can apply for a judicial review of the decision to certify your human rights claim as unfounded.
What are the time limits to appeal against an immigration refusal?
One thing is certain; if your immigration application has been refused you cannot delay and do nothing. You need to look at your immigration options and decide if an appeal is your best route to successfully securing entry clearance or if you are better off making a fresh application for the same visa or looking at an alternate visa application.
Immigration solicitors advise not to leave taking legal advice or making your decision to the last minute. That is because your immigration lawyers may need time to investigate your appeal prospects or alternate visa routes or you may need time to get paperwork together to support your immigration appeal.
There are two deadlines to note:
- Fourteen days - if you are appealing an immigration decision from within the UK you have fourteen days to appeal from the date of the decision being sent by the Home Office.
- Twenty-eight days - if you are appealing against an immigration decision from outside the UK then you are given twenty-eight days to appeal the immigration decision from the date of the decision being sent to you.
Although there is the possibility of applying to appeal out of time it is best to stick to the time limits to avoid the additional hassle and cost of asking for permission to appeal out of time or risking your application to appeal out of time being refused.
UK Online and London Immigration Solicitors
Need help with your immigration refusal or appeal? For expert immigration law advice call the immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.