Currently, there’s no right of administrative review or appeal when you are refused a UK Visitor’s visa. Under certain limited circumstances when a refusal violates your human rights, you may be able to appeal against a UK Visitor’s visa refusal—and that’s all.
From the outside, the Entry Clearance Officers at the Home Office seem to be unaccountable to anyone, and their decisions which are mostly unpredictable when it comes to Visitor’s visas get a lot of people who are refused upset.
But every public officer or body is accountable to someone in the UK, mostly to a court.
Apart from being disappointed or upset when refused a UK Visitor’s visa, a lot of people become confused when they receive their refusal notice—sometimes, torn between either to make a new application or to completely forget the visa and try again at a later date.
What a lot of people do not know is that there’s a third option when you are refused a UK Visitor’s visa, and that is to consider challenging the refusal—if the refusal is ‘unreasonable’.
When it comes to UK Visitor’s visa, there are a few mandatory documents required as part of the application and even if all these documents are presented, the existing broad discretion accorded the Entry Clearance Officers (ECOs) means your application can still be refused, on the back of the ECOs’ poor judgment, inability to properly comprehend the presented documents, factual errors or wrongful application of the applicable law, Appendix V of the Immigration Rules.
Apart from being disappointed or upset when refused a UK Visitor’s visa, a lot of people become confused when they receive their refusal notice—sometimes, torn between either to make a new application or to completely forget the visa and try again at a later date.
What a lot of people do not know is that there’s a third option when you are refused a UK Visitor’s visa, and that is to consider challenging the refusal—if the refusal is ‘unreasonable’.
When it comes to UK Visitor’s visa, there are a few mandatory documents required as part of the application and even if all these documents are presented, the existing broad discretion accorded the Entry Clearance Officers (ECOs) means your application can still be refused, on the back of the ECOs’ poor judgment, inability to properly comprehend the presented documents, factual errors or wrongful application of the applicable law, Appendix V of the Immigration Rules.
Why Re-Application is Sometimes a Bad Idea
Apart from the money involved, if an ECO has refused your application and you believe this was done unreasonably or that he has failed to properly consider the presented evidence or did not understand the facts, making a fresh application sets you off on a bad foot.
If you make a fresh application after a refusal, your new application would be considered in light of the previous refusal. It is as if you are starting with a negative tick against your name. Therefore, whoever will be assessing your new application starts from the previous refusal, and you are likely to be refused again if the old concerns are not properly addressed, and even if addressed, new ones may always crop up.
It must be understood that the more refusals you concede against your name, the less likely it’s that you will be issued a visa as you would have to, at every time address all the concerns in the previous refusals and this muddies your credibility or “genuine intention” in the estimation of the ECOs.
If you make a fresh application after a refusal, your new application would be considered in light of the previous refusal. It is as if you are starting with a negative tick against your name. Therefore, whoever will be assessing your new application starts from the previous refusal, and you are likely to be refused again if the old concerns are not properly addressed, and even if addressed, new ones may always crop up.
It must be understood that the more refusals you concede against your name, the less likely it’s that you will be issued a visa as you would have to, at every time address all the concerns in the previous refusals and this muddies your credibility or “genuine intention” in the estimation of the ECOs.
When You Should Not Re-Apply But Challenge the Refusal
Though there is no right of administrative review or appeal when it generally comes to UK Visitor’s visa, there is a legal route that can be taken to challenge refusal decisions, called Judicial Review.
Judicial Review is used to challenge the lawfulness of a decision made by public bodies and officers including the Home Office and it workers—and by this, a judge will consider whether the applicable laws or Immigration rules have been correctly applied and the right procedures have been followed.
To establish if a Visitor’s visa refusal decision was unlawful, and therefore Judicial Review should be used to challenge it instead of re-applying, these factors must be considered:
Judicial Review is used to challenge the lawfulness of a decision made by public bodies and officers including the Home Office and it workers—and by this, a judge will consider whether the applicable laws or Immigration rules have been correctly applied and the right procedures have been followed.
To establish if a Visitor’s visa refusal decision was unlawful, and therefore Judicial Review should be used to challenge it instead of re-applying, these factors must be considered:
- Has the ECO correctly applied the relevant law as set out in Appendix V of the Immigration Rules?
- Is the decision in accordance with the Home Office published policy on visitors’s visa?
- Has the ECO taken into account all material considerations/ evidence?
- Has the ECO taken into account immaterial considerations?
- Has the ECO made a factual error?
- Has the ECO provided sufficient reasons to enable you to effectively challenge the refusal decision or to reapply?
- Is the decision Wednesbury unreasonable, i.e. so unreasonable that no reasonable decision-maker, acting reasonably, could have made the decision?
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