Mr Khan recently instructed Mrs Kurshida Begum, an Immigration Solicitor at Optimal Solicitors in connection with a problem relating to his sister’s visa application. Mr Khan’s sister had submitted her visit visa application online which was refused. It transpired the reason for refusal was that his sister failed to provide sufficient evidence.
Mr Khan instructed Kurshida to appeal against the Entry Clearance Officer’s decision. However, he was advised that the best action would be to re-submit a fresh application. Mr Khan asked WHY? WHY can he not appeal against the refusal since in the ordinary course of events this is what you would expect where an unjust or incorrect decision has been made?
British citizenship – visa refusals and appeals
Since July 2013 it is only possible to appeal to the immigration tribunal against refusal of a visit visa where the grounds of appeal are on human rights grounds.
So why not a sibling visiting another sibling? This sort of visit might be said to be an important part of modern international family life, therefore protected by the European Convention on Human Rights which enshrines the right to “family live”?
The Home Office is forever arguing that private and family life can be continued from abroad by means of visits and ‘modern means of communication’. It might be hard to turn around now and say that visits are off the menu. But we know that hypocrisy is no bar to a legal argument. The Home Office would say that there is no need for the visit to be in the UK; the UK-based person could travel abroad instead, if necessary to a third country. Case law further tells us that there is no inherent protection of Article 8 family life between adults, such as an adult child and his or her parent or two adult siblings.
So even if Mr Khan could attempt to appeal on human rights grounds a judge may well decide the visit does not really raise human rights grounds and therefore there is no right of appeal. A lot of time, energy and money would have been wasted bringing such an appeal, and the chance lost to challenge the refusal by other means such as an application for judicial review.
What Mr Khans case tells us is that it is fundamentally important that prior to making any visit visa application proper legal advice is obtained.
If you are looking to apply for a member of your family to visit you in the UK give us a call now. We offer a 30 minutes free, no obligation consultation.
