NO RIGHTS OF APPEAL FOR THE FAMILY VISITORS BEGINNING 25 JUNE, 2013.
According to UKBA “By removing the right of appeal, we are bringing the family visitor visa in line with all other visitor visa categories. Applicants who are refused can re-apply addressing the reasons for refusal instead of appealing. This will be quicker and cost less than an appeal. In 2011-12, 95% of applications were decided within 15 days, whereas the appeal system can take up to 8 months to deliver a result.” Courtesy UKBA
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
It clearly means that if you are planning to apply for a family visit visa to the UK under 2 years, 5 years, or 10 years category, with an option of full right of appeal just in case of refusal then better do it before June 25, 2013. Otherwise; if you ever apply for a fresh family visit (FV) visa application after June 25, 2013 then you would have to pay the same amount should you desire the same visa category again for a fresh visa application with no right of appeal henceforth.
WHAT IS UKBA’s ULTIMATE MOTIVE BEHIND IT?
Well the UKBA’s motive is crystal-clear. Discourage as many visit visa applicants from the third world countries as it can to apply for 2 years, 5 years, or 10 years visit visa category and just confined them to apply for only 6 months visit visa category … simple … isn’t it?
For any further information on appeals please call us for details.
Please note that currently … full right of Appeal is only given against refusals in following UK visa categories now:
- Tier-1 Dependent Category.
- Settlement Visa Categories.
All other categories such as Work Permit holder, Visitor (Student-visitor, Medical-visitor, Business-visitor, Academic-visitor) and Student (Tier-4) does not hold the full right of Appeal. However the Applicants refused under student-category are given one chance to file an Administrative Review petition.
What is an Administrative Review?
An Administrative Review is a right of an Applicant who can file it for a review of his/her Visa Application without any charges (by BHC) if that student feels that he/she has been refused wrongly by the Entry Clearance Officer: the ECO/Visa Officer/Respondent. The only difference is that this type of Petition is:
- Reviewed only by the Entry Clearance Manager (ECM) regionally at British High Commission as it is not sent further to Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) in UK for a third party review by the Judge there since the student has not full right of Appeal under new Tier-4 (Point-based system) beginning April 01 2009.
- Petition reviewed by the Entry Clearance Manager-ECM regionally at British High Commission (BHC) only once.
- WARNING : Although the Administrative Review looks pretty seductive bargain from the outset, it is not as simple as it may seem. Why?: because back before the April 2009 prior to the new Tier-4 point based system was introduced, not only that the full right of Appeal was being given to students refused for their visas, they were also given a chance to fulfill their deficiencies. For example, if a student (Appellant) came along with the objection of English Proficiency from the visa officer then he/she could either take IELTS if he/she has not taken at all to begin with or could re-take the IELTS to achieve his/her score (bandwidth) as required by British Council guidance hence needed to study his/her course in UK and therefore could satisfy the judge at AIT by producing the evidence that his/her deficiencies were met or accomplished as a new / fresh evidence even before the outcome of Appeal or while the Appeal was still in the process of being promulgated or such as sponsor’s issue raised by the visa officer that the Appellant has not been able to produced personal bank statement from his sponsor apart from the business bank statement that was already produced by the sponsor. Once the Judge was satisfied the requirements have been met the Appeal then most of the time was allowed and the visa was granted.
But in Administrative Review (AR) no such provisions are offered to the student upon the refusal. In fact the irony is that in AR a student refused is only allowed to identify the mistakes of visa officer only once if that student feels the visa-officer has made any error while calculating the 40 points as required to qualify for a student visa to UK.
No new evidence/proofs are not allowed at all in terms of fresh documentation unless the visa officer came along with the allegation of fake or forged documentation against the applicant under section 320 of UK Immigration & Asylum Act whereby the student feels the documents such as bank statements /academic record provided was not fake. Then & only then the fresh evidence can be provided to facilitate the Administrative Review or if the visa officer himself / herself feels that he would require any further evidence required for Admin Review. Otherwise if the student still insists he/she must be allowed to produce fresh evidence in AR, he/she then must file fresh visa application all over again. Bingo: yet another money minting Jackpot for BHC/UKBA/FCO/HMG-UK.
So the word for advice are: be very very careful while filling out the student-visa application and be sure to attach all the evidences in terms of documentation showing that (a) the applicant is fully authorized to utilize all of his/her sufficiently held funds available at his/her disposal to qualify 10 points allocated to local sponsor and (b) the applicant has a CAS (admission-letter) from fully registered and approved education provider (sponsor)/college/ university by UKBA in UK to qualify the rest of the 30 points.
Both Appeals and Administrative Review can be filed within 28 days of receipt of visa refusal-letter by the Appellant/Applicant from FedEx Visa Centre (You must remember the exact-date as to when you received it from FedEx).
Last updated: 20/06/2013