If your asylum claim was refused and any appeal has ended, you can still put new material to the Home Office. If it accepts the material as a fresh claim, you get a new decision and, if that is a refusal, a new right of appeal. If it does not, there is no appeal and the only challenge is judicial review. The test is set by the Immigration Rules, and the submissions must be built to it.

The test

Further submissions amount to a fresh claim only if the material is significantly different from what has already been considered. That means it has not been considered before, and taken with the earlier material it creates a realistic prospect of success before a judge, even though the Home Office itself rejects it.

New material can be: a change in your circumstances (a new relationship, a child, a conversion, political activity in the UK); new evidence about your original account (documents, witnesses, expert reports); a change in your country (new country guidance, a change of regime, new violence); or a change in the law.

How submissions are made

Further submissions are lodged in person at the Further Submissions Unit by appointment, or by the method the Home Office directs for your case. They must be in writing with the evidence attached and an explanation of why the test is met. Submissions made only to delay removal are rejected quickly, so the explanation matters.

What happens next

Accepted as a fresh claim and granted: you receive protection or leave.
Accepted as a fresh claim and refused: you have a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal.
Rejected as not a fresh claim: no appeal. We assess whether the rejection was lawful and, where it was not, challenge it by judicial review.

Support while you wait

If you are destitute you can apply for asylum support while the submissions are outstanding, in some circumstances. We advise on this at the same time.

What we do

We review the whole history, identify what is new and why it matters, obtain expert and country evidence where it will make the difference, draft the submissions to the test and lodge them. Legal aid is usually available for fresh claims with merit.

Legal aid

The firm holds a legal aid contract for immigration and asylum work. If you qualify financially, this work can be funded; we assess eligibility at the first call. See legal aid.