February 26th 2009 - Right of Appeal Abolished for Student Visas
- Source - Home Office
The right to lodge an appeal against a student visa refusal to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) will be abolished when Tier 4 starts at the end of March.
Every day hundreds of appeals against Entry Clearance refusals are currently heard before an independent Immigration Judge at the AIT.
Around 25% of refusals are overturned on appeal, a staggering number considering that most appellants do not even show up in court, or opt to have their cases dealt with ‘on papers’ with no representation.
The right of appeal will be replaced by an "Administrative Review" - basically the case will be reviewed by another Entry Clearance Manager (ECM).
Entry Clearance refusals cases subject to appeal are of course already reviewed by an ECM before going on to a full hearing in the UK. According to appeal specialists Bison UK, the "vast majority of refusal cases are upheld by the Entry Clearance Officer’s (ECO) manager".
However, where cases do reach the AIT for a full appeal the figures are reversed. In their experience, over 95% of the refusals upheld by the ECM were subsequently overturned by an Immigration Judge at the AIT hearing. In other words, an independent Immigration Judge has deemed that 95% of those visa refusals were unlawful.
What chance do students have under the Tier 4 of the new points system?
The Government argues that because the points based system will be more transparent and fair, there will be no need for an appeal process.
Under tier 4, students will, say the Government, only be refused on factual information, such as fraudulent documents or lack of funds. Students will not be refused on purely "subjective" reasons such as:
"I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that you intend to leave the UK at the end of your studies" or
"On the balance of probabilities I am not satisfied that you are a genuine student".
This is commonly known as refusing on "intention", something which, according to UK Border officials at a recent meeting in London, will not be allowed under the new system.
This is will be a major change for ECO's who are used to acting on their own suspicions and opinions, and it remains to be seen what will happen in practice when the new system comes in at the end of March.
For further information on how Fulham and Chelsea can help you study and work in the UK please contact: info@fccollege.co.uk
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