Judicial Review

In many cases there is no longer a right of appeal against a decision to refuse your immigration application.

If you do not have a right of appeal you may be able to challenge the lawfulness of a decision of the Home Office by Judicial Review.

Judicial review is a legal procedure, allowing individuals or groups to challenge in court the way that Ministers, Government Departments and other public bodies make decisions. The main grounds of review are that the decision maker has acted outside the scope of its statutory powers, that the decision was made using an unfair procedure, or that the decision was an unreasonable one.

Prior to proceeding with a claim for Judicial Review, we have to send a Pre-Action - Letter before Claim to the Home Office. The letter will contain the issues in dispute namely the failure of the Home Office to deal with your matter appropriately. The purpose of this letter is to try and avoid unnecessary litigation.

1) The permission stage - this allows the court to filter cases by deciding which should be allowed to go to a full hearing. The permission stage is decided on the basis of a written claim and will involve a fairly brief look at the case to decide whether:

Once the Judicial Review claim form is lodged with the High Court/ Upper Tribunal, the Home Office will then have a period of 42 days in which to file their acknowledgement of service.

The acknowledgement of service will set out the grounds on which the Home Office is seeking to contest the claim.

Once the acknowledgement of service has been lodged, the judge will read the documents lodged by both parties and will decide whether to grant permission. The decision will be notified by post.

What happens if permission is refused?

In the event that permission is refused, and it has not been declared to "totally without merit" you can request that the decision is reconsidered at an oral hearing usually within 9 days of receiving the decision to refuse.

What happens if permission is granted?

In the event, that permission is granted and the matter is not settled, then it will move to the next stage.

2) Full hearing - The judge may make an order concerning the way in which the case should proceed, called case management directions.

When all parties are ready, and when the court has time available, the case is listed for a full hearing at which argument by both sides is heard by the court.

How long does it take?

Claimants currently wait between 6 months and 1 year for a case to go to a full hearing, though urgent cases can be heard within 24 hours if necessary. However, the first permission’ stage of the proceedings may only take a few weeks and many cases are “settled’ following the decision of the court to grant permission.

Very often making a claim will encourage a previously unresponsive defendant to review the matter, as they can see that you mean business. A public body’s concentration on the issues involved will be increased even more if permission is granted.