Pre Action-Protocol means to resolve a dispute before court proceedings are started in relation to immigration and nationality decisions.
If your visa is refused and there are certain reasons and evidence to believe that the decision of the ECO is not justified and the reasons setout in the notice of refusal are not valid and justified and are beyond the actual circumstances and facts, then this is right option for you to avail.
The UK Court’s Civil Procedure Rules Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review sets out the information required as part of a Letter before Claim. It is not a requirement to provide the information on this form, although you are encouraged to do so. A person who is unable or who does not wish to use this form should still provide the information as indicated in the proforma, so far as relevant, in his or her letter to the Home Office and send it to the email or postal address specified below. Where the use of the protocol is appropriate, the court will normally expect all parties to have complied with it and will take into account compliance or non-compliance when giving directions for case management of proceedings or when making orders for costs.
A decision letter from the Home Office refusing your visa application is surely not something anyone would like to receive or see. However, it is certainly more disturbing when the reasons for refusal are completely illegal and incorrect. This is something that is unfortunately not as uncommon as one might think. Our immigration lawyer is confident in advising and assisting on not only the visit visa application itself, but also the aftermath just in case the Home Office makes a wrong decision. We understand and appreciate our clients’ concerns and therefore endeavour to provide the best client care service we can by obtaining the desired result. Below is a summary of a recent case we represented and successfully obtained the visa for.
Our Immigration lawyer was initially approached by a client following her visitor visa application refusal. The application was submitted personally by the client without any legal advice or representation. After considering the UKVI refusal reasons, we advised our client that the decision was in fact a correct one. After taking our clients full instructions we advised her that the Home Office were correct in refusing the application as she had failed to provide mandatory evidence demonstrating the purpose of her UK visit intention and her ties to the Home Country. We therefore suggested that we can take on the case and represent our client for a fresh application because having a previous refusal complicates the situation. We were therefore instructed to advice our client, prepare her application, review evidence and draft a solid letter of representation explaining the application circumstances. Our lawyers assisted and guided our client with care and thoroughness to make sure the Home Office could not find a reason to refuse the application again. Thus, if you are looking to apply for a visitor’s visa to enter the UK for any permitted reason, we suggest you contact our Immigration lawyer who will be able to assess your circumstances and advice you on the requirements and process. Contacting us before submitting your application will save you time and money as if you meet the requirements and can provide the documents needed, you will reduce the risks of having your application refused. It is complicated for us a cover each and every requirement for a tourist visa in this article, however, we have listed below some points to take general care of.
Visit visa refusal reasons
So, what are the most common reasons for visit visa refusals?
- Evidence of ties to country of nationality/residence.
- This can be demonstrated through your family, career or academic relations.
- Evidence relating to the purpose of your visit to the UK and how you will spend your proposed time in the UK.
- This can be for tourism, to visit family or friends, to attend certain business activities or any other permitted activity.
- Evidence of your maintenance and accommodation
- This can be demonstrated via where you will stay and whether you can cover the costs to do so. Such as a hotel booking or a letter from family, if you will be staying with them.
- You will also need to prove that you will cover your air fare, personal expenses, and medical costs while in the UK. This can be evidenced through your income, savings or through your financial sponsor, if you have one.
- Evidence demonstrating your financial situation in your country of nationality/residence.
- This can be evidenced through your circumstances back home, covering your income and outgoings.
- Finally, as raised in every refusal letter, you must convince the caseworker that you will leave the UK at the end of your visit.
- This is usually demonstrated through the documents supplied to cover the above mentioned points. For example, you may have a job, family or university you must return to.
The type of documents you provide to address the above points will depend on your personal circumstances. Our Immigration Lawyer will provide you with guidance on which documents you must prepare.
Applying for UK visit visa after refusal
We treated our client’s case as a fresh one, disregarding her initial refusal reasons. We had to assess the file in full taking into account her overall situation. We advised our client and provided her with the list of documents we need for the application. We were in constant contact and guided our client whenever needed. Once our client provided us with all of the requested evidence, we considered and evaluated these. We were then able to inform our client of the risks of her application and what needed to be amended. Once we were happy with the documentation provided, we prepared an application covering letter to support our client’s application. This letter explained our client’s initial refusal and how she met the requirements, with reference to the evidence provided. In this particular case, the Home Office refused our application even though all requirements were clearly met.
Following our fresh application, the Home Office refused our client’s application again, however, this time they were wrong in doing so. The Home Office was claiming that our client had not provided evidence of her finances and how she will cover her expenses for the UK visit. We were confident that our client met the requirements and provided all of the necessary documents needed, as we had done so ourselves.
Visit visa refusal: How to challenge decisions
Visit visa refusals do not carry appeal right, so you cannot appeal visit visa refusal. Nor do they have a right to administrative review. The only option is to challenge it by way of threatening a Judicial Review. This does not mean that the Judicial Review will be needed. Often enough, a pre-action letter (done as part of pre-action protocol) is sufficient to overturn the decision.
In the present case, we explained the pre-action protocol and JR process to our client and obtained their instructions. We prepared strong grounds for a pre-action protocol explaining how and why the Home Office was wrong in refusing the application. When considering the reasons for refusal letter, it came to our immediate attention that the Home Office had not considered the evidence we provided and as a result ignored some of the documents provided. For example, the financial documents had been ignored and not considered at all. Failing to consider available evidence makes a decision illegal and is a ground for overturning it. This was put forward to the Home Office in our pre-action letter.
Considering the numerous errors that led to the refusal decision, we informed the Home Office that we will be initiating JR proceedings if needed. Following our pre-action protocol application, the Home Office contacted us agreeing to rectify their illegal decision and issue our client with a visit visa. Therefore, we were able to overturn the refusal at the pre-action protocol stage. Our client happily entered the UK with her visitors visa.
Here at Qazi Law Associates, our expert Immigration lawyer having proven track record of handling refused visa applications, minutely analyse the potential for PAP and advise your either to re-apply or to go for PAP. If Immigration Lawyer advise you to go for PAP then PAP proceedings would be handled professionally until its final outcome. Our Immigration Lawyer will advise you the additional evidence if so required and will prepare the PAP paper work and grounds/skeleton arguments in rebuttal of the objections levelled by the dealing ECO.
After refusal of your visa, if you are looking for authentic immigration advise, visit us along with complete case file which was submitted for visa with refusal notice.
If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to schedule of appointment for free consultation session.
