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I am a Nigerian citizen. In 2007 I was twice denied a visa to the UK. Recently I was filling out an application for another UK visitor visa and by mistake I answered no to the question whether I had ever been denied a UK visa, instead of yes.

When reviewing my application, the visa officer found out about the previous visa rejections and as a result I got a 10 year ban on travel to the UK.

What can I do to lift my 10 year ban?

Will this ban affect my chances of obtaining a visitor visa to the USA?

JonathanReez
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maryam
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because we can't help OP. An immigration lawyer can. –  Feb 22 '16 at 01:29
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    It's a good question because we do not have a canonical on judicial review. – Gayot Fow Feb 22 '16 at 08:22
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    @aleksG In both questions they have been refused Visa, due to supplying incorrect information, and in both questions they have been handed 10 year bans, and the top answer on the other question talks about ways of getting the ban lifted. – Phil Feb 22 '16 at 09:38

2 Answers2

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Hold on. There's more to this than you gave us in your question...

Answering 'no' to the question about previous refusals can be easily forgiven by an ECO if you had completed the other parts of the form accurately. Let's look at the form...

enter image description here

There's the section about Date, Country, Reason, and Reference Number wherein previous refusals are itemized. Had you filled this out they could assume that your 'No' check box was an innocuous clerical error. Somehow your question failed to mention the whole section must have been blank.

Answering 'No' and leaving the subsequent section blank cannot be reasonably attributed to a clerical error. Moreover, as an applicant with two prior applications you are in a position to be aware that you have had previous refusals. It's full on deception case closed.

Having said all of that, let's look at your question...

Firstly, what can I do to lift my 10 year ban?

Bans where Article 8 is not engaged get lifted through the process of Judicial Review. You need to instruct a solicitor from the UK Law Society to find and instruct a Barrister who is qualified to undertake advocacy work in the high court, and they will lodge a judicial review. In your case you will have an enormous amount of difficulty getting a solicitor to take your case. They need to show that they are not exploiting migrants by giving them false hopes, or they will attract an adverse comment from the Solicitors Regulatory Agency (SRA) which will be reckoned against their practicing competence. If somebody took you under client care, it's a retainer fee of about GBP 10k and about another GBP 25k in fees to prepare the case and represent it (that's a guess).

There are some landmark cases out there where bans were overturned by the high court, but their topologies and semantics are a lot different than yours. But with luck and some ponderous financial reserves and most of all persistence in finding a solicitor, maybe you can succeed.

Secondly, if I apply for a visitor visa to the USA, will the 10 years ban affect my chances of getting it?

Yes. The USA is a signatory to the Five Eyes Treaty in addition to a unique treaty with the UK. We have some stuff here in the archives about that already,

Note: if you lose in a judicial review case, the Home Office can ask the court for an order to recover their side of the costs. The risk of such an award to the respondent means you need to be really, really, REALLY sure you are going to win.

Note: see also Standard Visitor visa refusal (Deception, V3.6(b)) and procedure for reapplying

Note: further questions about judicial review should be taken to Legal. We have only limited scope for questions about it.

Note: in another answer user40416 (to whom thanks for a great answer) pointed out that Nigerian nationals have an unwieldy history of fraudulent visa applications. You would be in a position to be aware of this also and hence use extreme diligence in completing your visa application.

Note: for a general discussion about the UK Visa Sections posted to Nigeria, read this article in the TSE archives.

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Gayot Fow
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    Trying to give the OP the benefit of the doubt, I have skipped parts of forms because I didn't have what I needed to complete them at hand with the intent of going back, only to forget that I skipped a section until getting a validation error. None of them were on anything with failure consequences as potentially severe as what the OP did; but while suspicious it's possible it was an "I'm an idiot error" not something malicious. Unfortunately it's probably a moot point as far as immigrations are concerned. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Feb 22 '16 at 16:51
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    Also in fairness to the OP, the previous denials were nine years ago. It is possible to inadvertently forget something from nearly a decade ago. We don't know whether the OP is pathological or not, nor does it really matter, as UK Immigration has clearly decided it was deception. – Zach Lipton Feb 22 '16 at 17:05
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    @ZachLipton we already had a case heard by the Upper Tribunal where the appellant (coincidentally from Nigeria) claimed forgetfulness was not deception. The appellant lost. – Gayot Fow Feb 22 '16 at 23:26
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    @GayotFow It would probably be good to edit that example into your answer. – Lilienthal Feb 22 '16 at 23:33
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    @Lilienthal, the answer has already attracted comments of 'legalese' and has to stand 'as is' at the moment; it invites the reader to take follow up questions to http://law.stackexchange.com/ (Legal) – Gayot Fow Feb 22 '16 at 23:59
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    An individual cannot instruct a Barrister directly because the court needs to be sure there's a case to answer : This was true in the past, but no longer I think? What of Direct/Public Access Barristers? –  Feb 23 '16 at 02:01
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    @LePressentiment great comment! The OP could use public access for some forms of legal advice. AND Yes indeed a barrister like Colin Yeo could engage directly and sometimes does; but for an immigration ban where Article 8 was not engaged, the Bar Council would require that the OP have adequate legal support. For details of why, please see Section 84 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. – Gayot Fow Feb 23 '16 at 02:35
  • @JamesRyan not from me. I'd like to see the SE catering to the whole planet, not just one culture or two. Imagine if the folks down under decide to jump into the bandwagon and pepper just a bit of their lingo, we'd be doomed... XD -- P.S.: Feel free to call me to help hammer the star'n'stripes slangs. – Mindwin Remember Monica Feb 23 '16 at 12:14
  • @GayotFow just reading this old QA; I was curious, if the OP (say) actually (genuinely!) marries a UK person, would they get a permit to live in the UK? Does the ten year ban mean everything altogether, or just "tourist visas"? Just curious. – Fattie Oct 05 '16 at 12:08
  • @JoeBlow, across the board and the government will block marriages of convenience, but the exclusions are listed in P320 and P321. Article 8 overrides a ban. – Gayot Fow Oct 05 '16 at 15:53
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Lifting your 10-year ban is very easy - wait 10 years.

You have been denied twice before, and you made a mistake / made a false statement / lied on the new application.

Unfortunately for you, Nigeria is top of the list where visa fraud and false documents are concerned - the examiners aren't interested in your explanation as they've heard it plenty of times before.

Rather unlikely a lawyer is worth the money - 2 denials plus this incident is rather hard to recover from. When you fill out the forms in 2026 pay close attention to the details.

user40416
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    I like to think that the Visa officials are trying to keep the check in times shorter as well. Ever tried checking in in Terminal 5, section B? It is always a total nightmare as you wait for people unpacking, repacking, and arguing with officials and each other. Your kids will love it though as it is a hot bed for the sniffer dogs and those little guys are awesome. – Gusdor Feb 22 '16 at 11:06
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    +1 for putting forward the most practical and realistic approach. The OP has peed in the well in a virtually irreversible way. – Gayot Fow Feb 24 '16 at 11:38