Immigration Judicial Review: Handled by WPC Lawyers

Judicial review asks a judge whether a Home Office decision was made lawfully. It does not rehear your application or decide whether you should have been granted. It is usually the option left when a decision carries no right of appeal and no administrative review, or when those routes have already been used.

Before a claim is started, the Home Office should normally be sent a letter under the judicial review pre-action protocol. Claims must be brought promptly and within a strict time limit. Most immigration judicial reviews are decided by the Upper Tribunal; some, including challenges to a sponsor licence revocation, go to the High Court.

If something that cannot easily be undone is about to happen, such as removal from the UK, detention or a sponsor licence revocation taking effect, an urgent application can ask the court to consider the claim within days and make a temporary order in the meantime. From 19 October 2026, the Administrative Court will decide whether a case is urgent on Form N463 alone, so the form must make the whole case for urgency. WPC Lawyers explains which court hears which case, and what the form must show, in its guide to urgent judicial review in immigration cases.

• Act straight away. Waiting for further letters from the Home Office does not stop the time running.
• Keep the decision and every piece of correspondence about it.
• Send them to WPC Lawyers so they can check the grounds and the time limit.

If your decision letter offers an administrative review or a right of appeal, that route normally comes first. If your sponsor licence has been revoked, see sponsor licence suspension and revocation.

Back to Immigration Appeals and Reviews.