What to do within 14 days after permanent residency is denied? Full process of submitting an administrative review (AR)

The 14 days after the permanent residency application was denied, the most valuable thing is not the chance of overturning the decision, but your legal status has not yet been terminated.

This is my judgment: the majority of people apply for administrative review (Administrative Review, abbreviated as AR) in order to "reverse the visa refusal", but end up wasting £80; the real value of these 14 days is that it can maintain your 3C leave (Section 3C, under the Immigration Act 1971, automatic extension of stay), allowing you to legally remain in the UK and continue working while waiting for the result. Once you understand this, you will know whether you should apply and when to apply.

Walk through the actual process after receiving the rejection letter.

Can I submit an AR after a permanent residency rejection? First, check the last page of the rejection letter.

The body of the refusal letter explains "why it is refused," and the last page explains "what you can do." AR and appeal (appeal to the First-tier Tribunal) are mutually exclusive under the rules: AR applies only when the decision does not include the right of appeal; conversely, decisions that include the right of appeal cannot go through AR.

This is the most common pitfall for those who take the Appendix FM spouse route or long residency route with private life claims. If your application is deemed to have raised a human rights claim and is rejected, Home Office usually provides the right of appeal, not an Application for Reconsideration (AR). At this point, submitting an AR will be deemed invalid, and you will lose the 14 days while waiting for the invalidation decision. For permanent residency routes such as Skilled Worker or Global Talent that do not involve human rights claims, the rejection letter usually provides AR.

After confirming the ability to proceed, the second pitfall is harder: AR only reviews one thing - "case working error". Appendix AR defines it very strictly, roughly including applying the wrong rule, applying the rule incorrectly, miscalculating the score, miscalculating the residency period, not considering all evidence submitted with the original application, or making an error in assessing the submitted evidence.

The most widely circulated statement in the industry is "AR is to make up for the missing materials and then submit them." This statement is wrong. AR generally only reviews the file that the person making the original decision had at hand, and materials submitted after the fact are not included in the review (except in extremely narrow cases involving allegations of fraud). Therefore, the approach of "I missed submitting a pay stub, so I will make it up with AR" does not work; whereas "I submitted complete 12 months of pay stubs, but the reviewer said I was not qualified just by looking at 9 months" is the actual point that AR can effectively address.

Similarly, miscalculating the number of days absent is the most common and most arguable type of dispute in AR. Before submitting, re-calculate your own entry and exit records according to the Appendix Continuous Residence criteria (both the departure date and arrival date are counted as being in the UK, only full days outside count). It's best to use 永居计算器 to calculate precisely by day. List your numbers side by side with those on the refusal letter; this is more useful than writing a 1000-word appeal.

Those 14 days started running from the day you hadn't opened that email yet.

The key is the five characters "deemed delivery date". Immigration Rules Appendix SN (Service of notices) stipulates: if the decision is delivered by email, it is deemed delivered on the day it was sent; if delivered by post to an address within the UK, it is deemed delivered on the second business day after posting (excluding the day of posting and non-business days); for overseas addresses, it is the 28th day. Now, the vast majority of permanent residency decisions are delivered via eVisa account plus email notification, meaning that the email you didn't open on Friday night and saw on Monday is legally counted from Friday. 14 days are calendar days, and the clock does not stop during Christmas, Easter, or when you are out of town. Not a single day can be missed - once AR is deemed late, there's only the expensive and slow route of judicial review left.

Outside the time limit, these 14 days also have a significance of identity.

If your permanent residency application was submitted in-time (before the original visa expires), the 3C leave will continue your status during the processing period; after a rejection, the 3C will not immediately end, but will continue until the AR period ends; if you submit an effective AR within the period, the 3C will continue until the AR is resolved. Conversely, if you decide not to submit an AR and instead reapply for a new application, the 3C will end at the moment the 14-day period is over - after that, your work rights, rental rights, and NHS fee status will change accordingly. This is why I said the main function of AR is to "keep your status stable," not to "win."

The fee is £80. The refund policy is outlined in Home Office "Administrative Review" Panelist Guidelines (August 3, 2026 edition): the £80 will be refunded only if the AR is deemed invalid, or the review result is to revoke the original decision and approve, which is usually refunded within three weeks from the date of the decision; no refund will be given if the original visa refusal is upheld. The official service standard is 28 days to get a result, but it's common for it to take longer in practice. There are three possible outcomes: revoking the original decision, upholding the original decision, or upholding but replacing or adding new reasons for the visa refusal. In the third case, you can submit another AR against those new reasons, and this time it will be free.

If you can't tell whether this rejection letter you're holding is for an AR or an appeal right, don't guess it yourself - pay £5 on justiscript.com and a qualified lawyer in the UK will give you a written response within 24 hours, available in both Chinese and English, which is much faster than asking on forums, and much cheaper than missing the 14-day period.

After receiving the rejection letter, please do these four things in order.

1. Turn to the last page of the rejection letter, confirm whether it says "administrative review" or "appeal", take a screenshot of the date the decision email was sent, count 14 days from the date of service, and mark it in your calendar.

2. Compare each rejection reason one by one, and determine whether it belongs to a case working error. If it is "my documents were not complete", AR cannot help, and you should directly prepare for a new application.

3. Confirm whether the original application was submitted on time. If yes, submit an AR within the deadline to extend 3C; if uncertain, arrange work and lease arrangements based on "will be interrupted".

4. After receiving the AR result, check immediately if there are any new reasons for rejection. If there are new ones, the 14-day window will be reopened once and it is free.

This article is for reference only. For specific issues, please consult a licensed attorney. Fees and rules are subject to the latest announcement from GOV.UK.

[Data Source] gov.uk/ask-for-a-visa-administrative-review; Home Office "Administrative review" caseworker guidance (2026 edition); Immigration Rules Appendix AR and Appendix SN; Home Office immigration and nationality fees, 8 April 2026

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