You should send a pre-action protocol (PAP) letter to Home Office UKVI before filing an immigration Judicial Review (JR) in Court and ask the Home Office UKVI to reconsider its refusal decision within 14 days.

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What Is A Pre-Action Protocol (PAP)

A pre-action protocol (PAP) letter is a letter written to the Home Office, UKVI in order to try and resolve a dispute concerning an immigration matter before Judicial Review (JR) proceedings are started against the Home Office UKVI. A Pre-Action Protocol (PAP) letter may also be called a ’letter before claim’ or a ’letter before action’.  All of these terms refer to the same thing.

Purpose Of Pre-Action Protocol (PAP)

The purpose of pre-action protocol (PAP) letter is to identify the issues in dispute and establish whether litigation with the Home Office, UKVI can be avoided. The letter contains the date and details of the immigration decision (the refusal letter), act or omission of the Home Office UKVI being challenged and a clear summary of the facts on which the Judicial Review claim against the Home Office, UKVI is based. It also contains the details of any relevant information that the applicant is seeking from the Home Office, UKVI and an explanation of why this is considered relevant.

Response To Pre-Action Protocol (PAP)

Immigration Judicial Review (JR) proceedings against the UKVI are not normally issued until the proposed reply date given in the letter before claim has passed, unless the circumstances of the immigration case require more immediate action to be taken. Home Office UKVI, should normally respond to letter before action (pre-action protocol letter) within 14 days and Home Office UKVI may face cost implications for failure to respond to pre-action protocol (PAP) letter unless there are good reasons for not responding within that period.

An application for permission to apply for Judicial Review can be filed in the Upper Tribunal or Administrative Court (High Court), as the case may be, if the Home Office, UKVI do not respond to the pre-action protocol letter within 14 days or the Home Office UKVI responds within 14 days but maintains their decision to refuse the immigration application.

The protocol does not affect the time limit specified by CPR Part 54.5(1) namely that an application for permission to apply for Judicial Review (JR) must be made promptly and in any event not later than 3 months after the grounds upon which the claim is based first arose.

How Can We Help?

As specialist immigration solicitors, we can represent you in your pre-action protocol (PAP) letter for Judicial Review (JR) against the Home Office UKVI. Work to be carried out on your pre-action protocol letter by our immigration lawyers may entail the following:

• assessing the Home Office UKVI decision to identify the grounds which render the UKVI decision unlawful and not in accordance with relevant immigration laws;
• discussing the relevant grounds with you and advising you on the prospects of success in your matter;
• advising you about the weaknesses and strengths of your immigration case;
• preparing the pre-action protocol (PAP) representations and discussing the same with you before submitting them to the Home Office UKVI;
• submitting the pre-action protocol representations to the Home Office, Judicial Review Management Unit and liaise with them for a response to your pre-action protocol letter;
• assessing the UKVI response to pre-action protocol letter and discussing the same with you;
• re-assessing the merits of the case upon receiving the UKVI response to find out whether you still have a good case to proceed with the Judicial Review (JR) proceedings;
• advising you on the merits of the case after re-assessing the case in the light of the UKVI response.

How Much We Charge?

Unless your matter is very complicated, our fees for a pre-action protocol (PAP) are as given in the fee table below: