What a human rights application is
Many people who have built a life in the UK do not fit any visa route. A human rights application asks the Home Office to let you stay because removing you would breach your rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, mostly your right to respect for private and family life under Article 8. The Immigration Rules set out when the Home Office will treat Article 8 as met, and beyond those rules the Tribunal can still find that removal would be disproportionate.
Private life
The private life rules are the usual route for people with long residence who cannot qualify in other ways. At the time of review, you may qualify if you:
- have lived continuously in the UK for 20 years, or
- are aged 18 to 24 and have lived in the UK for at least half your life, or
- are under 18 and have lived in the UK for at least seven years, and it would not be reasonable to expect you to leave, or
- are 18 or over and have lived in the UK for less than 20 years, but there would be very significant obstacles to your integration into the country you would be returned to.
Leave on this basis is usually granted for 30 months at a time, and settlement normally follows after ten years. The Government has proposed changes to settlement. See earned settlement: what is proposed, what is law.
Family life
Family life claims arise where you have a partner, a child or another close family member in the UK. If you meet the family routes, such as the spouse and partner visa or the parent visa, you apply under them. If you do not, for example because the financial requirement is not met, you may still succeed on the basis that there are exceptional circumstances: that refusal would result in unjustifiably harsh consequences for you, your partner or a child. The best interests of any child in the UK are a primary consideration.
Long residence and human rights compared
If you have ten years of lawful residence, long residence may be a simpler route. If you have been in the UK unlawfully, or have gaps, the human rights route is often the one that remains. See overstaying and re-entry bans.
Evidence
The evidence is about the whole of your life here: how long you have lived here, with whom, where you have worked and studied, your relationships and friendships, your health, your children’s schooling and what you would face if you were sent back. Documents from every year of residence, statements from people who know you, school and medical records, and country evidence on the place you would return to, all matter.
The application and the appeal
The application is made online, with the Home Office fee and the health surcharge unless a fee waiver applies, and a refusal is a refusal of a human rights claim, which carries a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, within 14 days from inside the UK. See immigration appeals. Where you cannot afford the fee, a fee waiver may be available on proof of destitution or of risk to a child’s welfare.
How we help
We assess which of these routes fits, build the evidence of your life in the UK, prepare the application, and, if it is refused, prepare and file the Notice of Appeal. Book a consultation below.
