A belated update on family visitor appeals. Royal assent was
recently given to a clause in the Crime and Courts Bill which will
mean that from 25 June or soon thereafter there will be no full
right of appeal for family members against an entry clearance
officer's decision to refuse a visitor visa application. The
Government's view is that making applicants apply again will be
quicker and cheaper for them than using the appeals system in the
UK courts. In principle this sounds positive and it often is indeed
the case that simply applying again to remedy a defect in an
application identified by immigration officials is the quickest and
cheapest route.
However, the decision to take away appeal rights does not
account for poor decisionmaking by visa staff (around 1 in 3
visitor visa appeals currently succeed). The Independent Chief
Inspector of Borders and Immigration has published several
inspection reports in recent years about the work of UKBA visa
sections overseas.
