Duty on Decision Makers to Follow Fair Procedure in Deciding Visit Visa Applications

When a person makes a visa application to enter the UK as a visitor, they must, among other requirements, prove that they are a “genuine visitor”. A common reason for refusal of an application for permission to come to the UK as a visitor is that the person applying is not a genuine visitor. In deciding whether a visit is genuine, paragraph 4.2c of Appendix V of the Immigration Rules requires that a person is genuinely seeking entry for a permitted purpose. (Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules Appendix V: Visitor - Guidance - GOV.UK.) 
 
The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber has recently shed light on the lawfulness of the decision maker’s approach to assessing genuineness of a visit R (on the Application of Sanci) v. SSHD 2026 JR-2025-LON-002518 - Tribunal decisions. In this case, Ms Sanci wanted to visit the UK from Turkey. The decision maker did not accept that her application for visit permission was genuine. Ms Sanci argued that the decision amounted to a finding of deception on the part of the decision maker and that the common law duty of procedural fairness required the decision maker to give Ms Sanci an opportunity to respond to this allegation.

The Upper Tribunal considered a number of decisions relating to the public law duty to allow a person to respond to such an allegation. The Upper Tribunal referred to  R (Akturk) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 297, where the court held that “The duty to act fairly requires that an entry clearance applicant who is accused of deception for reasons she could not reasonably be expected to know about and would face mandatory refusal of future applications on account of a finding of deception, should generally be given notice of that allegation and an opportunity to respond to it before her application is decided.” 

The Upper Tribunal found that in Ms Sanci’s case the decision maker had committed a material breach of common law duty in deciding Ms Sanci’s case by not giving her the opportunity to respond to their finding that she was not a genuine visitor and as such the decision needed to be quashed and a new decision made.

This is an important decision for those seeking permission to visit the UK. Decision makers need to be reminded of their obligation to allow an applicant for a visit visa to respond to an assertion of deception before a final decision is made on their application

Applications for visit visas can be complicated and if you require assistance preparing a visit visa application, then do please contact us.