律師的信

Dear Mike

I have now spoken with Counsel at length on the proposed appeal, following his review of the papers and our instructions. He advises, as follows:

1. He believes that you have grounds to challenge the refusal of entry into the UK on appeal.
2. That being said “an appeal would cost you a fairly significant amount of money and may take some time to be processed through the system before coming before an Immigration Judge”. He believes that an appeal would take between 6 months and 1 year to process and would cost approximately £3,500.00, inclusive of Counsel’s fees, plus VAT, plus disbursements.
3. Counsel further stated that, as an alternative to making an appeal, you may be better off making a fresh application for entry clearance, ensuring that, in that application, you give a full explanation for what happened in Paris and also that you ensure that the application is supported by as many notable individuals as possible - for example tutors / professors at UCL and others.
   1. NB: One problem however is that any refusal of the further application would not attract a right of appeal and could only be challenged by way of the even more expensive and very much more limited process of Judicial Review. If you end up on a judicial review, Counsel’s fees alone would be in the region of £3,500.00, plus my firm’s charges which will be between £3,000.00 and £4,000.00, plus VAT, plus disbursements.

As such, after lengthy consideration, the advice of Counsel seems to be that you ought to lodge the appeal and, at the same time, pursue a fresh application for entry clearance supported with similar documents to those lodged on the appeal, and then if successful with the fresh application, it would enable you to withdraw the appeal.

We can prepare both the appeal and the fresh application on your behalf. Please note that to avoid any delay in dealing with either/both of the applications, I will require a payment on account of costs in the sum of £2,000.00, plus VAT, for Counsel’s fees on the appeal and this firm’s charges for the preparatory work of the appeal and the fresh application and with a further payment for the balance of the fees prior to lodging either the appeal or the fresh application. I note that I am still awaiting details of your address so that I can open the file and progress the matter.

I trust that the above addresses the necessary points to enable Mr Lee to decide how he wishes to proceed and I await hearing from you with your instructions.

Regards