Successful Visa Appeal

by Lyndie (3/31/2006)

Friday 24th March 2006 – Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in London.

I prepared my case against the British Embassy in Ankara in October, when I lodged the appeal papers. Although I also had to do some more work.

 

The process wasn’t too difficult. When I sent my papers to the court, the Embassy (The Respondent) had so many days to reply to my papers (respond). They did this and I was able then to see the reasons they had written in their papers about why they refused him. Luckily, the reasons they gave were pathetic! They said that they did not have evidence of this and that, but actually the evidence was in their own paperwork and I was able to cut a lot of time by just referring the court to their papers. I then had to send more papers to the court so that they arrived within 5 days of the hearing. This was ok. I had to send a copy of my papers to the court, a copy to the Respondent and keep a copy myself for when I went to court.

 

Yesterday I went to court. I was pretty scared because I didn’t know what to expect. My case was heard 3rd, so I had a chance to see what was going on with the other cases. It wasn’t too scary actually. Only a very small room, with a Judge and the Home Office lawyer. There was no one else in the room when my case was heard except a student (who was observing) and my daughter who came to give me some moral support. Because I had spent a lot of time preparing my case on paper, I didn’t have to speak too much. The Judge advised me to speak because it would add more weight to my arguments. I can talk for England so this wasn’t a problem and my lawyer training gave me confidence, but actually anyone could do it.

 

They asked me various questions about my friend and his family and I told them all about him in an honest way. They also asked some questions about the actual application, but because I had prepared the paperwork so well, they didn’t ask too many questions and accepted the things that the Home Office could not argue with. This made it much easier.

 

I already had been told by court administrators, that we would not get the Judge’s decision for 10 days, so I was very surprised when the Judge said that he would ‘allow’ the appeal. This means we WON! Hurrah! My mouth dropped open and for the first time since I went into the court I was speechless.

 

The Judge and the Home Office were very nice.

 

My friend is walking on air at our success and he would come tomorrow if he could, but he must wait for his visa stamp in his passport. I am very excited getting his room ready for him.

 

So….

The message is. Anyone who wants to appeal, but think they need a lawyer is wrong. You can do it yourself and it doesn’t cost a penny. (Well the only money I spent was getting a Turkish letter translated. You have to have an Accredited Translator do it and this cost £100. But it was worth it. If you don’t have any documents to translate, then you should not need to spend a single penny for the appeal.

 

If anyone wants any advice or to see copies of my appeal papers, please send me your email address in a private message and I will try to help.