Admin Review

Some immigration applications, if refused, attract the right to Administrative Review. Administrative review is a process whereby a UKVI officer – either in the UK or outside the UK, depending on where the application was made – reviews the decision of another UKVI officer to see whether it is correct or not. If it is deemed to be correct then nothing happens but if it is deemed to be incorrect then the decision is overturned and the migrant gets the visa.

Roughly speaking, working visa applications, study visa applications and EU Settlement Scheme applications attract the right to Administrative Review, as also does refusal of leave to enter the UK.

Some other types of visa refusal attract the right of appeal to the First-Tier Immigration Tribunal and some (eg visitor visas) may not attract the right to either appeal or Administrative Review.

If your immigration application has been refused and it is in an eligible category you should be informed in the decision notice of the right to Administrative Review. For in-country applications there is a fee of £80 but for entry clearance applications there is no fee. If an in-country Administrative Review is successful the fee is refunded.

An Administrative Review application needs to explain why the decision is claimed to be unfair. It needs to be written clearly and succinctly to have a good chance of success; UKVI officers evidently have limited time to look at each application.

As a general rule, you cannot enclose any fresh evidence: usually you have to rely on the documents that were sent with the original immigration application. However, in some cases you may be invited to submit fresh evidence; the rules about this are fairly complex.

If your application has been refused and you have – or you think you should have – the right to Administrative Review then we at GSN Immigration may be able to help you.

Author

Oliver Westmoreland

OISC Level 3 Immigration Adviser