Right of Appeal or Administrative Review 

If your UK visa application has been refused by the Home Office - court/government department, which affects their life (such as whether they can enter or leave in the UK), it may be possible to challenge the refusal. You may have been given a right of Administrative Review, or a full Right of Appeal or no Right of Appeal at all.
 

Your rights are dependent on the type of application that was submitted. In most situations. the appeal right will be as follows:

• All Points Based System (“PBS”) applications and family members of PBS migrants, i.e. Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 4 and Tier 5, attract right of Administrative Review only.

• Human Rights and Protection claims and applications under EEA Regulations attract a full right of appeal. Some in-country Rights of Appeal can be “certified”, i.e. appeal can only be lodged once the applicant leaves the UK.

• There is No Right of Appeal for visitor visa applications.
   

Right of Appeal

Section 84 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 outlines valid grounds of appeal to the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, which are:

• The decision is not in accordance with the immigration rules;

• The decision is unlawful by virtue of Race and Religion section 19B;

• The decision is unlawful under the Human Rights Act, e. the decision is incompatible with the Convention rights of the appellant;

• The appellant’s rights under the Community Treaties would be breached because they or a family member are an EEA national;

• The decision is not in accordance with the law (other than the immigration rules);

• That discretion should have been exercised in a different way to how it was legally exercised by the initial decision maker;

• The appellant’s rights under the Refugee Convention and Human Rights Act would be breached were the UK authorities to proceed with removal.
   

An appeal must be lodged with the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) within 14 calendar days of the date you were sent the notice of decision if you are in the UK, and within 28 calendar days if you have been refused entry clearance and extended in certain circumstances.
 

Administrative Review

Administrative Review is a process where an individual applied for entry clearance visa can challenge the refusal on the basis that the decision is incorrect due to a case working error and governed by Immigration Rules Appendix AR: administrative review.

If you are outside the UK and wish to apply for an Administrative Review of a UKVI decision, you will have 28 days to make the application. If you are applying from inside the UK, you must lodge your application within 14 days.
 

There are four possible outcomes to an application for AR as stated in the Immigration Rules, Appendix AR, para AR2.2. These are the Administrative Review:

• Succeeds and the eligible decision is withdrawn, or

• Does not succeed and the eligible decision remains in force, and all of the reasons given for the decision are maintained, or

• Does not succeed and the eligible decision remains in force, but one or more of the reasons given for the decision are withdrawn, or

• Does not succeed and the eligible decision remains in force but with different or additional reasons to those specified in the decision under review—note in this scenario, you may be entitled to apply for Administrative Review related to the new reasons.

On occasions it is cost effective in terms of time and money to make a fresh application knowing the application was refused for a particular reason that may be easier to rectify than submitting an Administrative Review.