Fees for Representation at hearings before the First Tier Tribunal (all fees exclude travel expenses which will be added to your total bill)  

​

Tier 1 (investor) related human rights' appeals:  £3500

​

Spouse/Partner related human rights' appeals: £1750

 

Adult Dependent Relative entry clearance human rights' appeals: £2250 

 

All PBS related human rights' appeals, including paragraph 322(5) related appeals (excluding Tier 1 investors): £2500

 

Deportation appeals: £1500

 

Bail applications: £750

 

Spouse/Partner related human rights' appeals: £1750

 

Family Reunion for refugees: £950

 

Privately funded asylum appeals: £950 

 

Upper Tribunal

 

Fees for represenation at an appeal hearing before the Upper Tribunal from a decision of the FTT: £2250 

 

Fees for making immigration applications - including advising on procedure and evidence, completing online application forms and drafting legal representations to be submitted with your application

 

All Points Based System applications: £3000

 

Spouse/Partner applications: £1500

 

Adult Dependent Relative applications: £2500

 

Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal or Administrative Court

 

Representation at substantive hearing on judicial review: £3000

 

Representation at substantive hearing before the Court of Appeal: £5000

 

Consultations 

 

Face to face consultation, in person, or during Covid 19 lockdown, via video link (Skype, Zoom, Facetime or Whatsapp), to advise on your immigration position: £750 

 

 

 

Additional costs 

 

There is no additional VAT. All fees exclude travel expenses (calculated at the rate of standard 2nd class train or tube fares). 

 

If a hearing is listed in Manchester or North Shields, this will require an overnight stay and a fee of £150 will be added to your bill.

 

Fees for representation before the First and Upper Tribunal to the First Tier Tribunal do not include court fees (£140 for oral appeal hearings to the First Tier Tribunal) 

 

Fees for judicial review do not include court fees for issuing (£154) and continuing with judicial review (£770) (fees correct as of 28 Jan 2020)

 

Fees for making immigration applications do not include Home Office fees for making those applications or the Immigration Health Surcharge. For a detailed list of all Home Office fees (which are generally raised every year), see here:-

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table/home-office-immigration-and-nationality-fees-29-march-2019

 

Fees for the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) can be calculated here:-

 

https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application/how-much-pay

 

Where you are instructing me to represent you at an appeal hearing or at the hearing of a judicial review, the above fees represent my fee for representing you at the hearing only and assume that you have fully prepared and filed all of the necessary documents for the appeal, including your trial bundle and witness statements, or that these have been prepared and filed by your solicitor if you are instructing me via a solicitor. If you require me to also compile appeal bundles or undertake other preparatory work, then this work should be negotiated separately by way of an additional fixed fee or will be charged at my above noted standard hourly rate.

 

Indicative timescales for key stages in a case

 

Depending on the nature of your case and what services you are requesting from me, the following are generally key stages in the life of a case with an indication of how long they may take. As noted below, the timescales can vary and can be effected by the factors which are also set out below. 

 

Initial Consultation - at a date and time specified in your client care letter on initial instruction. This will generally take around 1-3 hours but could be longer depending on the complexity of the case. 

 

Written opinion - if instructed to provide a written opinion, this will be drafted to meet your required deadline as specified in your client care letter or if not specified by you, within 1-14 days after instruction.

 

Application to the Home Office or Entry Clearance Officer - timescale to receive a decision 

 

The Home Office has huge backlogs across the entire immigration system. Giving an accurate estimate as to how soon you will receive a decision is almost impossible due to endemic delay. Moreover, different immigration categories can expect different timescales but much depends on the complexity of any particular case. Generally speaking however expect anything from around 2 to 6 months for an application to extend your leave if you are in the UK. The Home Office website gives service standards for particular types of case but states that these decision time standards are not guaranteed. Some types of application can be expedited if you choose the "super priority" service from the Home Office. 

 

In respect of entry clearance applications from outside the UK, then you can expect a period of around 12 weeks for a decision to be made but this could reach 6 to 12 months in complex cases or where regions are affected by political turmoil. 

 

Time awaiting biometric appointment 

 

When we submit your online application, the application will indicate the date by which you will need to book your biometric appointment with the Home Office. The online application will usually allow around 2 months after the date of submission of the online application form, for the appointment to take place.  

 

An immigration application can be subsequently 'invalidated' if you do not attend a biometric appointment with the Home Office (at which you will give your fingerprints and your photograph will be taken). We will book your biometric appointment online after submitting  the immigration application - to book within the stated period. There can be massive delays in getting an appointment due to the Home Office providing insufficient appointment slots to book via its onlie service provider. It can take several weeks to try to book an appointment due to this. Often appointment times may come ‘online’ and available to book, only during the early hours of the morning - I will advise you how to go about doing this.  

 

 

Appealing a Home Office of Entry Clearance decision to the First Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)

 

Once you have received a decision from the Home Office or Entry Clearance Officer, if you have a right of appeal, the notice of decision ought to specify the deadline in which you have to appeal. The appeal is started by you serving the notice of appeal to the Tribunal accompanied by a copy of the decision under appeal and your grounds of appeal.  

 

Due to Tribunal backlogs, it  can take several weeks (or even months during the pandemic) for the Tribunal to acknowledge receipt of your appeal in writing and give your appeal a reference number,  although you may receive an automated email response initially.

 

After the Tribunal has acknowledged your notice of appeal, in perhaps around 2 to 3 months, it is likely to issue written directions to you to provide an appeal skeleton argument and/or for your paginated, indexed and hyperlinked appeal bundle to be provided. The timescale by which you must comply will be stated in those directions. Note: Asylum appeals are very different and can be listed within 8 weeks in total. 

 

Drafting the Appeal Skeleton Argument 

 

If you instruct me to draft your appeal skeleton argument (ASA) then I will provide this to you by a set date which will usually be indicated in writing by email or in your client care letter. If no date has been specified by you, then I will provide it no later than 48 hours prior to the date on which you have been directed to serve it on the Tribunal via email (you should provided me with a copy of  any directions issued by the Tribunal). 

 

Listing of the appeal before the First Tier Tribunal Judge (IAC)

 

Again, there are endemic delays in the Tribunal system. You can expect anything from 2 months to 52 weeks for your appeal to be listed for an appeal hearing. The average time, as of March 2020, was 17 weeks to list an immigration appeal, or 8 weeks for an asylum appeal but these timescales vary enormously. 

 

After the appeal hearing you can expect to wait around 2 weeks for a decision to be made by the First Tier Tribunal Judge which will be sent to you in writing, via email or by post. 

 

Drafting an application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal 

 

It is important that you send me a copy of the First Tier Tribunal decision as soon as you receive it if you wish me to advise you on the merits of an appeal to the Upper Tribunal as the deadline to appeal the decision, if negative, is very short. Te  deadlines to appeal should be stated in the Tribunal's letter accopanying the decision. 

 

If I advise that there are merits in bringing a further appeal from the First Tier Judge’s decision to the Upper Tribunal, then I will provide you with my draft of the grounds of appeal by the date specified in writing by email or as stated in your client care letter, and in any event, no later than 48 hours prior to the deadline for you to serve your application for permission to appeal on the First Tier Tribunal. 

 

Renewal of application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal

 

An application for permission to appeal the First Tier Tribunal Judge's decision to the Upper Tribunal is made on paper to the First Tier Tribunal. If this is refused, you can renew the application by making a renewed application for permission to appeal directly to the Upper Tribunal. If you instruct me to draft this application for permission to appeal I will provide it by the date specified by you noted in your client care letter or in writing by email, or in any event within 48 hours of the deadline to appeal. I will advise you of the deadline when providing me with a copy of the First Tier decision. 

 

There are delays in the system and it can take several months for an application for permission to be decided, first by the First Tier Tribunal and, if refused, by the Upper Tribunal. 

 

Appeal Hearing before the Upper Tribunal 

 

If  permission to appeal has been granted, the Upper Tribunal will, in most cases,  list your case for an oral hearing. The listing can be delayed by backlogs in the system and you may have to wait around 2 months to get a hearing or longer. Delays vary depending on a variety of factors and vary month by month. 

 

An appeal to the Upper Tribunal is divided into 2 stages although the Upper Tribunal may decided both stages at the same hearing. The first stage is an assessment of whether the First Tier Judge made a material error of law in his or her decision. If the Upper Tribunal holds that there was no error of law, it will simply say that the decision of the First Tier Tribunal Judge will stand. 

 

If it finds material error of law in the First Tier decision it may either remit your case to be heard afresh by another Judge of the First Tier Tribunal or remake the decision itself. If your appeal is remitted back to the First Tier Tribunal then this may take around several more months to be listed again for hearing. The time involved will depend on backlogs in the system. 

 

If the Upper Tribunal decides to remake the decision on your appeal itself, it may do so at the same hearing, or if more evidence is needed, may adjourn to a future date. This could take around a few weeks to several months depending on the complexity of your case, what additional evidence is required and the backlogs in the system, or the availability of a particular Judge. 

 

 

Judicial Review

 

Sometimes it is not possible to appeal against Home Office or Entry Clearance Officer decisions but they might be amenable to judicial review ('JR') in  either the Upper Tribunal or Administrative Court (depending on the nature of the immigraton issue). Judicial Review is not an appeal against the merits of a decision but whether it is procedurally fair and lawful. A JR must be brought promptly but in any event, unless there is good reason to extend time, within 3 months of decision. 

 

Applicaton  for permission to seek judicial review

 

You may instruct me to draft your application for permission to seek judicial review. I will do so in accordance with the date specified in your client care letter or in writing by you and in accordance with any deadlines that I advise. It is not possible to say how quickly an application for permission to seek judicial review will be decided as it depends on the complexity of the case and court backlogs, but you can expect around 1  to several months. 

 

Applications for permission to seek JR can be expedited on order of the Court in certain circumstances. 

 

An application for JR can be generally renewed at an oral hearing if permission is refused on the paper unless your case is certified as without merit.  

 

Judicial Review Hearings

 

If permission to seek judicial review is granted, the Upper Trbiunal (or Administrative Court as appropriate) will list your case for hearing and set out procedural aspects such giving deadlines for serving detailed grounds of defence, skeleton arguments and Court trial bundles. It can take between around 3 to 12 months for a JR to be finally resolved at a hearing depending on the complexity of the case. 

 

 

Summary  of factors which can influence the timescales on your case

 

The following factors may influence how quickly your case may be dealt with:-

 

• Home Office backlogs - Delay caused by backlogs in processing applications and Home Office decision making, quintessentially due to lack of resoures, is endemic throughout the entire immigration system. 

 

* Tribunal or Court backlogs - There are large backlogs of cases awaiting to be heard by the Tribunal and some Courts which may cause delay in acknowldgement of your appeal or listing your case for hearing. 

 

* Administrative Errors made by the Home Office or Entry Clearance Officer: Administrative errors made by the Home Office are not uncommon. If there is an unreasnable delay in dealing with your case it may be sometimes possible to challenge this on judicial review.  

 

My availability: if I have a clash of professional commitments then I may need to provide your work before anticitpated, or delay work on it - e.g if a Court lists a case that I am professionally obliged to particpate in which clashes with the date I was expected to work on your case. I will always however meet any court or appeal deadlines when agreed in writing to do so. 

 

• The availability of you as client or 3rd parties: If you are not available when I need to obtain instructions or evidence from you, this may delay the completion of a part of the work. Similarly, if a 3rd party witness important for your case is not avaialble, this might delay getting evidence from them that is necessary for me to advise you or for the case to be prepared for court.

 

• The complexity of the case: Immigration cases can be very complex and no two cases are the same. A case which invovles a novel point of law may require longer legal research or, it may be held back by the courts if a lead case is awaiting to be heard. Complex cases generally take longer to prepare. 

 

• The amount of papers I need to review: If your case has a long history going back many years with  a large volume of papers, delays to my normal indicated timescales may be caused by the need to read all papers fully.

 

• The need for additional information or documents: When I advise you on evidence, either in respect of the necessary documents that you required for making a partiuclar immigration application, or for preparing your appeal bundle for use at a Tribunal hearing, it may take you quite some time to collect all of the necessary documents, especially if you need to obtai  them from a thrid party. I may have to delay my final advice to you until I have had an opportunity to see all of the documents. Occasionally, I may then advise that you need further documents or evidence if something arises out of the initial documents that you have provided which may further delay the final advice that I can give or further work.  

 

If you have an appeal that is listed for hearing, and additional information or documents are required in order that your appeal is to be decided fairly, it maybe that the Tribunal will adjourn the hearing, causing delay, if additional documents are required. 

 

* Expert Reports: Similarly, sometimes expert report writers that you instuct on my advice may require more time to produce a report than you have before your appeal hearing. This may necessitate an application to adjourn proceedings to allow you to fairly put your case. Delays can be caused by the expert's availability. 

 

• The approach taken by the other side: Fairly often in immigration cases the Home Office fails to comply with directions from the Tribunal to produce documents. This may then delay my ability to advise you on your case until I have had an opopruntiy to read the documents that the Home Office should have provided. This might also cause the Tribunal to adjourn your hearing. 

 

Conversley, the Home Office may wish to seek to settle your case before an appeal hearing or Judicial Review, drastically speeding up the final resolution of your case. 

 

• Third parties intervening in the case: Although relatively unusual in the immigration context, 3rd parties, such as the UNHCR or JCWI may seek to intervene in your case if it invovles an important point of law applicable to other cases. This may have the effect of prolonging proceedings to allow the intervener to give its submissions to the Tribunal or Court.