If you have received a refusal, this sets out exactly why, and your realistic options for putting it right.
A refusal letter is a hard thing to open. Before anything else: a refusal is a decision about one application. It is not a judgement on you, and for most people it is not the end of the road. Next, here is what we actually do. We read refusals, explain them, and where it is the right answer we prepare a fresh application. We do not do appeals, administrative reviews, tribunal work or judicial review, and we do not handle asylum or human rights claims. Those sit outside what we are authorised to do. If that is what your case needs, we will tell you in the first conversation and point you to someone who can help, before you have spent anything. The next step is not to act fast. It is to read the notice properly.
This is a general guide only; we confirm your exact position at the free consultation.
A free consultation to review the reasons for refusal
A straightforward explanation of your realistic options
Where appropriate, preparation of a stronger fresh application
Nothing is submitted without your approval
Updates through to the outcome
In an industry that tends to promise everything, it is worth being blunt about the edges of what we are allowed to do. We would rather you knew in the first minute than the first invoice.
We can:
We cannot:
These fall outside our authorised scope as an IAA-regulated firm, and you are welcome to check our registration on the Immigration Advice Authority's public register before you speak to us. If your case needs any of the things on that second list, the most useful thing we can do is say so early and point you towards someone accredited to take it on.
The notice can look like a form letter. It is not. It contains the two facts that everything else depends on.
First, which requirement failed. The caseworker has to identify the part of the Immigration Rules you did not satisfy, and explain why. That paragraph is the whole case. It tells you whether the problem was your evidence, your eligibility, your credibility, or something you did not disclose. A refusal about the format of a bank statement is a completely different problem from a refusal about whether your relationship is genuine, and the right next step is different too.
Second, what rights you have. The notice states whether you have a right of appeal, a right to administrative review, or neither. Many refusals carry no appeal right at all. Assuming you have one when you do not is how people lose the time they actually had.
Where a deadline applies, it is written on the notice, and those deadlines are short — often counted in days, and different depending on whether you are inside or outside the UK. That is a plain fact about the process, not a reason to panic. Read the notice, write the deadline down, then get advice while there is still room to use it.
The same causes come round again and again.
Most refused applications we see were not ineligible. They were badly evidenced. That is a more hopeful position to be in than it feels like right now.
The instinct after a refusal is to fix the one thing named in the letter and send everything straight back. That is usually how people get refused twice and lose two Home Office fees.
A fresh application after a refusal has to do more work than the first one did. It has to meet the original requirements in full. It has to answer each refusal ground directly and on its own terms. It has to explain what has changed and why. And it has to disclose the refusal itself, because you will be asked about it in this application and in every future one, and an undeclared refusal is a far bigger problem than a declared one.
It also has to be honest about what cannot be fixed. If you were refused on eligibility rather than evidence, more documents will not change the answer, and we will tell you that instead of selling you a second attempt.
If the refused application was a settlement or citizenship matter, the route back is often narrower than people expect. See Indefinite Leave to Remain and British citizenship for how those decisions are made.
Reviewing your refusal notice and telling you where you stand costs nothing. It is covered by the free consultation. If your matter turns out to be an appeal, an administrative review, a tribunal case, or an asylum or human rights claim, we will say so in that conversation and you will owe us nothing. We would rather send you to the right person than take a fee for work we are not allowed to do.
If a fresh application is the right route and you ask us to prepare it, the anchor is worth knowing. Published market rates for this kind of work commonly run from £1,500 to £3,500, usually charged by the hour. Our fee is £500, fixed. It does not go up because there is a refusal behind your case.
The Home Office fee for the new application is separate and set by government. Note that the fee you paid on the refused application is generally not returned, although the Immigration Health Surcharge normally is refunded. We set out the current figures in writing before you commit, and the full breakdown is on the fees page.
No. Appeals, administrative reviews, judicial review and tribunal representation are all outside our authorised scope, and so are asylum and human rights claims. What we can do is read your refusal notice, identify whether appeal rights exist, and direct you to an adviser authorised for that kind of case if that is what your case needs.
It is a limited internal reconsideration where you say the caseworker made a case-working error. It is not a fresh look at your case and it does not usually allow new evidence. We do not carry them out. If your notice offers one, we will tell you and point you to someone who can.
Your refusal notice states it. It will say whether you have a right of appeal, a right to administrative review, or neither. Many refusals carry no appeal right at all, so it is worth reading that section carefully before assuming anything.
Any deadline that applies is stated on your refusal notice. Appeal and administrative review windows are short and strictly applied, and they differ depending on whether you are inside or outside the UK. Note the date as soon as the notice arrives and get advice while you still have room to use it.
It depends on the refusal grounds, whether appeal rights exist, and how the deadlines fall. Where a fresh application is genuinely the stronger route, we can prepare it. Where an appeal is what your case needs, we will say so clearly and you will need a different adviser for it.
You can, and people often do. But reapplying without fixing the reason for the first refusal usually produces a second refusal and a second lost fee. Understand exactly what failed before you spend anything, which is what the free consultation is for.
It must be disclosed and it will be considered, but it is not automatically fatal. What matters is addressing it directly rather than hoping it goes unnoticed. Refusals involving deception or false documents have much longer-lasting consequences than refusals about evidence.
Yes. A free consultation that ends with us advising you not to apply is a better outcome for you than a paid application that was never going to succeed. Stating our limits honestly is the only reason you should trust what we say we can do.
Book your free 30-minute consultation for a straightforward, honest assessment of your matter.