What makes an appeal to the Immigration Appeals Board succeed

An appeal to the Immigration Appeals Board can and does reverse decisions from the Immigration Service and SIRI. Plenty of appeals also fail, and the difference between the two groups is more consistent than you might expect.

1. Pin down the exact ground of refusal

Read the decision and find the provision it turns on. Section 9(1), the 24-year rule? Section 9(5), self-support? Section 9(7), attachment? The appeal has to aim at that provision. An appeal that argues something adjacent is an appeal about a different case.

2. Put something new in front of the Board

Appeals that introduce new, relevant material do considerably better than appeals restating what the authority has already rejected. That might be:

• more recent employment contracts or payslips
• a new language test result
• medical evidence of a health circumstance
• statements from an employer, family members or others with direct knowledge.

3. Argue dispensation where the objective conditions cannot be met

Where a requirement is simply unmet, dispensation may be the only route, and it needs genuinely exceptional circumstances, evidenced:

• serious illness affecting either party or a shared child
• a real risk of separating a child from a parent
• circumstances engaging the European Convention on Human Rights.

4. Raise EU rights even if the application did not

Where there are EU elements, periods of work or residence in another member state, or where the Ankara Agreement applies to a Turkish national, the appeal should invoke them. Their absence from the original application is not a bar.

5. Cite the Board’s own decisions

The Board is bound by its own practice, and its decision database is public. Where comparable cases have gone the other way, say so and cite them.

6. Keep it short and ordered

Long, unstructured appeals get skimmed. Three to eight pages, laid out predictably:

1. which decision, which date, which provision
2. the facts, briefly
3. the legal argument, why the decision is wrong
4. what you are asking the Board to do: overturn or remit
5. numbered exhibits.

7. Get it read before it goes in

We have won more than 150 appeals, which mostly buys familiarity with what the Board responds to. An early assessment also answers the prior question, whether this decision is worth appealing at all.

What happens next

The original authority reconsiders first. If the refusal stands, the file goes to the Board, where 12 to 24 months is typical. The Board can uphold the decision, vary it, or send it back.

Get the refusal to us early, in appeal work, the time left on the clock is the resource that matters most.