Fresh claim after appeal rights exhausted

Hello. I would be happy to explain how this works.

Yes, you absolutely can. In immigration law, the process of bringing new information to the Home Office after your appeal rights are exhausted is known as making further submissions. If the Home Office agrees that your new reasons are strong enough, they will treat your submissions as a fresh claim.

Legal position:

The rules for this are found in Paragraph 353 of the Immigration Rules. Because your previous claim has been finally refused and your appeals are over, the Home Office will only accept your application as a fresh claim if your new evidence is significantly different from what they have already looked at.

For your evidence to be seen as significantly different, it must meet two strict tests.

First, the content must not have already been considered by the Home Office or an immigration judge.

Second, when the Home Office looks at your new evidence alongside everything in your old claim, there must be a realistic prospect of success. In simple terms, this means there must be a genuine chance that an immigration judge would decide in your favour this time around.

What counts as new evidence:

New evidence has to be meaningful. This could be things like a sudden change in the political or security situation in your home country, new medical evidence about a serious health condition, a new family relationship such as having a child in the UK, or important documents that you simply could not get hold of during your original claim. Changes to immigration law or new case law that affect your situation can also count.

Practical next steps:

1. Gather your new evidence. This is the most crucial step. You need solid, objective proof to show exactly what has changed or what new information you have found.

2. Explain your situation clearly. You will need to prepare a written explanation of what your new evidence is, why you could not provide it before, and why it means you should now be granted asylum or human rights protection.

3. Submit your claim to the Home Office. Most people have to submit their further submissions to the Further Submissions Unit. You generally have to book an appointment online and then attend in person in Liverpool to hand over your documents. There are some exceptions to attending in person, for example, if you are an unaccompanied child, have a severe illness, or are highly vulnerable, in which case you may be allowed to post your application.

What happens after you apply:

The Home Office will look at your further submissions and make a decision.

If they agree your submissions amount to a fresh claim, they will go on to decide whether to grant you permission to stay. If they still refuse your application at that point, you will usually be given a brand new right to appeal to an immigration tribunal.

If they decide your new evidence is not strong enough to meet the test for a fresh claim, they will reject it entirely. If this happens, you will not be given a right of appeal. The only way to challenge a refusal to treat your evidence as a fresh claim is through a complex and expensive court process called judicial review.

It is also important to keep in mind that simply sending in further submissions does not automatically protect you from being removed from the UK. The Home Office can still take steps to remove you while they consider your new evidence, which is why it is so important to put together the strongest and most well documented case possible right from the start.