Visa refused? Administrative review, appeals and reapplying

Administrative review

£80; apply within 14 days (in the UK) or 28 days (outside)

Appeal

Only for human-rights, protection and EUSS decisions; First-tier Tribunal, £80 to £140

Judicial review

For unlawful decisions with no other remedy; needs a lawyer; weeks to months

Reapplying

Allowed at any time; often the fastest fix

Most UK visa refusals are not the end of the road, but the right next step depends entirely on why you were refused, and the clock starts running the day you get the letter. This guide walks through the refusal letter, the three formal remedies and the unglamorous fourth option, applying again, which is often the one that works.

Read the refusal letter properly

The letter (or email, for online applications) tells you the paragraph of the Immigration Rules you failed and the facts the caseworker relied on. It also tells you what remedy you have: a right of administrative review, a right of appeal, or neither. Note the date. Most letters now also say whether the refusal was on suitability grounds (deception, criminality, previous breaches) or eligibility grounds (you did not meet a requirement such as salary or funds). Suitability refusals are far more serious because they follow you into every later application.

Administrative review

For points-based work routes, study, visitor and most other non-family routes, the remedy is administrative review: a different Home Office official rechecks the decision for caseworking errors. It costs £80, is applied for online, and the deadline is 14 days from the decision if you are in the UK or 28 days if you are outside. You cannot submit new evidence unless the review is about whether you provided a document that the caseworker said was missing. The review takes up to 28 days. Success rates are low, under 10% in most years, because most refusals are correct on the evidence that was submitted. Use it when the caseworker has plainly misread a document or miscounted something; do not use it to add the evidence you forgot.

While an in-country administrative review is pending your previous leave continues under section 3C, so you remain lawfully in the UK. If the review fails, that protection ends and you must leave or make a new application quickly.

Appeals

You have a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) only for a limited set of decisions: refusal of a human-rights claim (which includes most partner and family refusals and private-life applications), refusal of a protection claim, revocation of protection, and decisions under the EU Settlement Scheme. Work, study and visitor refusals carry no appeal right.

The appeal must be lodged within 14 days (in the UK) or 28 days (outside), online, for a fee of £80 for a decision on the papers or £140 for a hearing. The tribunal considers the position at the date of the hearing, so new evidence is allowed, which is the main advantage over administrative review. Hearings are listed many months ahead; waits of a year are common. Family-route appeals succeed around half the time, often because the evidence is better organised the second time. Representation by a solicitor or barrister is not required but makes a measurable difference. If the appeal succeeds the Home Office grants the visa; it can appeal to the Upper Tribunal on a point of law.

Judicial review

Where there is no appeal and administrative review has failed or is not available, the remaining remedy is judicial review in the Upper Tribunal: a challenge to the lawfulness of the decision, not a rehearing of the merits. It must be lodged within three months, usually after a pre-action letter. It is expensive (court fees of several hundred pounds plus legal costs, with the risk of paying the Home Office's costs if you lose), and the test is high: the decision must be irrational, procedurally unfair or based on a misunderstanding of the law. In practice it is used mainly for suitability refusals alleging deception, and for decisions with no other route of challenge. It needs a lawyer.

Reapplying

There is no bar on making a fresh application after a refusal, and no waiting period, unless the refusal imposed a re-entry ban (deception can bring a ten-year ban; overstaying and breaches bring one, two, five or ten years depending on the circumstances). For most eligibility refusals, reapplying with the evidence that was missing is faster and more certain than any review: a new application is decided in weeks, against months for an appeal. You pay the fee again. Address every reason in the refusal letter directly in a covering letter, and make sure the new application is consistent with the old one; discrepancies are what turn an eligibility refusal into a suitability one.

Which remedy, in practice