Appeal a Refused Visa

Lodge your appeal with the First-Tier Tribunal

Certain types of refusal decision generate a right of appeal to the First-Tier Immigration Tribunal: for example refusals of asylum / human rights applications, family visa applications, long residence applications. Applications from both outside and within the UK may attract the right of appeal, but the appeal is always heard in the UK. So we can help you appeal a refused visa.

The First-Tier Tribunal sits in various places in the UK and is presided over by Immigration Judges. If you appeal against your refusal decision you must lodge an appeal with the First-Tier Tribunal and your case can be heard in front of an Immigration Judge and you can call witnesses to support your case.

Lodging the appeal is the first stage. Once the appeal has been lodged you will receive a Notice of Hearing from the Tribunal which will tell you when and where the appeal is to be heard.

Subsequently you must prepare all the papers for the appeal hearing, including witness statement(s), legal argument, and any other evidence you want to use, and send them to the Tribunal and to the Home Office.

You can be represented by a legal representative at the hearing, who will present your case to the Judge. The Home Office is normally also represented by a legal representative. You will be called the “Appellant” and the Home Office will be called the “Respondent”.

After the hearing the Judge will make a reasoned decision, which will come in detailed written form.

Lodge an appeal with the Upper Immigration Tribunal

A losing party before the First-Tier Immigration Tribunal can appeal to the Upper Immigration Tribunal on the basis of a perceived error in the First-Tier Tribunal Judge’s decision. The error could be a legal error or an error of fact but it must be “material” error – ie it must be an error that realistically might have affected the decision.

So if you are unsuccessful in your hearing before the First-Tier Tribunal you might be able to appeal to the Upper Tribunal and if you are successful the Home Office might be able to appeal to the Upper Tribunal.

However, very importantly, an appeal to the Upper Tribunal is only likely to be admitted if it has some real substance to it and, in practice, only a minority of First-Tier Tribunal decisions are successfully appealed.

An applicant for appeal to the Upper Tribunal must first of all submit an application to the First-Tier Tribunal. If this application is accepted then the appeal goes ahead. If the application is unsuccessful then the applicant can renew the application to the Upper Tribunal itself, so they get “two bites of the cherry”.

A hearing at the Upper Tribunal is different from one at the First-Tier Tribunal. It is all about legal argument and there will not normally be any witnesses. If you have a legal representative they will conduct your case for you. In this situation you will not have to take part but you will be able to observe proceedings from the public area of the courtroom. If the Upper Tribunal accepts that the First-Tier Tribunal Judge’s decision was wrong then it can re-make the decision or it can send the case back to the First-Tier Tribunal for it to be reconsidered on the correct legal basis.

Requirements for an appeal before the First-Tier Immigration Tribunal

You, and any other relevant parties, must provide a written witness statement, which will be used in evidence at the hearing. You will also need to collect and collate together all the documents that you think will help your case.

You and any other witnesses will have to give oral evidence at the appeal hearing. But the proceedings at the Tribunal are relatively informal and are not like those in a court of law. If you are represented by a legal representative he/she will take care of all procedural and matters and will submit the legal argument to support your case.

Requirements for an appeal before the Upper Immigration Tribunal

This is a highly focused legal exercise: a legal argument has to be prepared which will hopefully convince the Upper Tribunal that the First-Tier Tribunal Judge’s decision was in material error.

What we can do for you for a successful Appeal

Once you instruct us we will first of all assess your case and decide whether an appeal is the best way forward – there might be other options.

If we come to agreement to prepare the appeal we will write a “grounds of appeal” when we lodge the appeal, which is a kind of legal argument, and which will set out from our perspective the legal basis of the case. It is possible – but not at all guaranteed – that subsequently the Home Office will withdraw the decision if they think, in the light of the grounds of appeal, that their case looks weak.

If the matter proceeds to an appeal hearing we will prepare the witness statement(s), collate all the papers together and put the papers into an appropriate bundle format and send it to the Tribunal and Home Office.

If you so instruct us we will provide an experienced in-house Tribunal advocate, who is fully familiar with your case, to represent you at the hearing so you have the best chance of success.

After that we will represent you with the Tribunal until we receive the decision. We are with you throughout the process, representing you and helping you to make informed decisions regarding your Immigration matters.

We will continue to make ourselves available during and after the submission of your appeal until a decision is made.

We will work hard to advise you so that you have the best chance of success.

Why not give us a call and discover that we are the best Immigration lawyers in London to handle your appeal case. We work with clients from all over the world, so if you are not in London, do not worry, we can assist you wherever you are in the world. We have helped many clients from all over the world with their UK Immigration matters.

Please contact us on info@gsnimmigration.co.uk or call us for an initial chat and discover we are the right firm for your immigration matter and speak to an experienced Immigration Lawyer/ Adviser to bring your matter to a successful conclusion.

Frequently Asked Questions