Appeals
Do I need a visa?
This page explains your rights to appeal against our decision if we refuse your application to come to live in the United Kingdom, or to extend your stay temporarily or permanently.
The notice we send to inform you of our decision will tell you whether you have a full right of appeal. If you do, you will also be sent a form to complete to make your appeal. The appeal will be to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, which is independent of the UK Border Agency. See Appeals system for more information about this.
Many of our decisions do not have a full right of appeal. Some have what we call limited appeal rights, which means you can only challenge the decision on limited grounds. Circumstances where the right of appeal may be limited include if you:
- applied to stay in the United Kingdom for a purpose not covered by the immigration rules;
- do not meet an age, nationality or citizenship requirement for the category in which you applied;
- do not have an immigration document of a particular kind, or any immigration document (such as if you are applying to come to the United Kingdom but have no passport or travel document);or
- are applying to stay in the United Kingdom for a longer period than is permitted under the rules.
If you obtain legal advice on making an appeal, it should be from a solicitor or from an adviser who is officially regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). This will ensure you get advice from someone who is properly qualified to advise you and meets approved standards. The OISC website has a directory of regulated advisers, all of whom must display the OISC logo.
You must make your appeal within the time allowed for doing so. If you are late in making your appeal, the tribunal may decide not to hear it.
Usually, you can appeal on any one or more of the grounds available to you.
You may always appeal on the grounds of:
- race discrimination; or
- human rights, if the decision is against your rights under the European Convention on Human Rights or it would be against your rights for us to remove you from the United Kingdom because of that decision).
If we have told you that we intend to remove you from the United Kingdom, you may also appeal if your removal would be against our obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
You may also be able to appeal if:
- our decision was not in line with the immigration rules;
- our decision was not in line with the law; or
- if the immigration rules allowed the person who made the decision to exercise his/her own judgement on the circumstances of your case and his/her judgement should have been exercised differently.
You will not have a right of appeal if:
- you still have permission to stay in the United Kingdom despite our decision to refuse your application; or
- you made an application to extend your stay or for permanent residence after your existing permission to stay in the United Kingdom had already expired.
See also
Internet links
Contact
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Immigration enquiry bureau
0870 606 7766
UK Border Agency Lunar House, 40 Wellesley Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR9 2BY