Tourism brings billions of pounds into the UK economy each year. Visit visa applications cost from around £120 and decision are issued within a few weeks – they are amongst the cheapest and quickest visa applications available. Facing a UK visa refusal can be frustrating, as these applications are often misunderstood.You would be forgiven for thinking that these applications are straightforward and that visit visas are easily obtained. You would also be wrong.
Visit visas are, probably, one of the most poorly considered visa categories. Home Office decision making routinely ignores evidence, deliberately misinterprets the facts and comes to bizarre conclusions. Clearly, they are looking for reasons to refuse applications.
An easy example, two adult family members applied together to visit a third family member resident in the UK. Both applicants worked in the family business, both lived in the family home and therefore had the same extended family in their home country. They relied on identical financial evidence and applied with identical bundles of evidence. One was granted and one was refused. The Home Office continues to insist the refusal was correct despite granting the other family member on the same evidence.
The reasons for the poor decision making are many. Political pressure on the immigration system and years of government "hostility" to migration appear to have created an ingrained culture of disbelief in the Home Office.
A significant reason for poor decision making is the mechanism available to challenge those decisions. In many applications, known as human rights applications, a refusal carries a right to appeal to an independent judge. Knowing this, the Home Office decision making is, somewhat, sane and rational. However, visit visa applications are not human rights applications and cannot be appealed, they must be challenged by judicial review. This is a very different type of challenge, see below, and it enables some incredibly poor decision making.
In an appeal, you must satisfy the judge that you meet the requirements of the application. It doesn't matter too much what the Home Office refusal said. If you meet the requirements, you win the appeal. In a judicial review, you must satisfy the judge that the Home Office decision contains an error of law – that it is legally deficient. An error of law can be ignoring a relevant fact, considering an irrelevant fact, or reaching a decision no reasonable person could make. This is much harder to do as the Home Office pay lip service to the 'relevant' facts of a case and they are given wide discretion over what is considered "reasonable".
To add to the difficulty of challenging a visit visa refusal, judicial review is very expensive and time consuming. You must instruct a barrister to draft the legal arguments, pay higher court fees and, if you lose, cover the Home Office's costs too. All of this makes challenging visit visa refusals difficult and disproportionate to the nature of the visa considering the application cost is around £120.
With all of this in mind, what can a person do when their visit visa has been refused. What options do they have to successful visit the UK.
The first option to consider must be judicial review. Although I have just set out why this is suboptimal it remains the only mechanism to challenge a refusal. Judicial review covers only the evidence that was available to the Home Office. You cannot add new evidence. If you believe you have provided all possible evidence, and you have been refused, then you must use judicial review to challenge the refusal.
If you think you could provide more evidence then you should seriously consider reapplying. Knowing how to reapply for UK visit visa after refusal can significantly improve your chances of success.Decisions are made quickly and the application fees are quite low so applying again must be considered as an alternative to judicial review. You should only apply again if you have additional evidence to support your application. Applying on the same evidence is futile.
If you choose to apply again you should keep the main three requirements of a visit visa at the forefront of your preparation:
- You must have a good reason to visit the UK – this can be visiting family, as a tourist, or for a few other permitted reasons.
- You must be able to support yourself financially whilst in the UK – you must show you have sufficient savings to purchase a return or onwards flight AND you must show you have enough to cover accommodation costs. If staying with family this might be zero but if staying in hotels you should show the expected cost and that you have that available.
- You must have good reasons to return to your home country – this is the most common reason for refusal and is expanded below.
There can be many good reasons to return to your home country but showing as many as possible is always advised. Work and other income earning activities are clear reasons as are family members remaining behind. Property and asset ownership, studies, membership of social groups and communities can all be good reasons to return and all should be evidenced clearly.
Even if you evidence these three requirements the Home Office will try to refuse you. Some of their favourite reasons are:
- Unexplained deposits into bank accounts – you should explain any deposits into your bank account which are not linked to work or other regular income. The Home Office may use these are a reason to conclude you do not genuinely control your savings.
- Unapproved leave from employment – if you're employed, you should get a letter from your employer confirming your leave has been authorised.
- Travel during term time – if you are studying, you should provide a letter confirming your travel will be during holidays and not during term time. You should also have the letter confirm you must study in-person.
- Differences in claimed income – if your salary or other income varies then you should explain these variations and provide letters confirming the receipt is genuine.
- Lack of other travel – you should evidence travel to any country and show you complied with the visa requirements of your travel.
- Supposed inconsistencies in your evidence – even if you do everything perfectly the Home Office might just misinterpret (quite possibly deliberately) something in your evidence to conclude that there is a discrepancy and therefore you are not telling the truth.
If you believe you have evidenced everything as best as possible. You have covered the above 'favourites' and the Home Office have still refused you then you should consider judicial review. If believe you can provide additional information to further support your application you should do so instead of using judicial review.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
