How to Stop Deportation from the UK – Revocation and Appeal

Revocation of a Deportation Order 

A deportation order orders the recipient to leave the UK and bans them from re-entering for as long as the deportation order is still in effect. This means that you have been ordered to leave the UK, either voluntarily or through your enforced removal.

If you do not have indefinite leave to remain in the UK, there are numerous instances when you may be issued with a deportation order, such as if you are sentenced to over 12 months’ imprisonment or if you are deemed to be a threat to UK national security. If you do re-enter the UK while you have an active deportation order, this will be considered a criminal offence. 

If you are facing deportation, you can appeal the decision from within the UK in certain circumstances, such as if leaving the UK would breach your human rights. Alternatively, you can apply for a revocation of the order once you have already left the UK. 

Considerations for Revocation of a Deportation Order

When a decision is being made on whether or not your DO should be revoked, a number of factors will be considered, including the following: 

• why the order was originally issued
• Representations (i.e. additional legal submissions) made in support of the the revocation request
• the interests of the community (i.e. whether you are considered to pose a risk to the community and whether the risk you pose is greater than the harm which would be caused to you by being deported) 
• any humanitarian considerations in support of you remaining in the UK (e.g. if you have lived in the UK for much of your life) 

If your deportation from the UK is ordered, it is likely that any family members whose permission to stay relies on your permission will also be ordered to leave. 

Note that UK deportation orders do not have a specific time limit. This means that, unless you receive a revocation of your deportation order, you will not be authorised to re-enter the UK even if you voluntarily leave immediately after receiving your deportation order. You will only be eligible to re-enter the UK upon getting your deportation order revoked and obtaining legal UK immigration status.

When a Deportation Order Can Be Revoked?

There are limited situations in which a deportation order can be revoked. In general, you will need to demonstrate one of the following: 

• There has been a significant change in your circumstances since your deportation order was granted 
• A substantial period of time has passed since the order was issued 
• You are able to provide evidence of your rehabilitation, in the case of deportation on grounds of criminal activity 
• Not revoking your deportation order would constitute a breach to your human rights 

If you can demonstrate that failure to revoke your deportation order would breach your Article 8 rights under the Human Rights Act 1998, for example, you may be successful in having your deportation order overturned. In general, you will need to be able to demonstrate that being unable to return to the UK would breach your right to a private and family life, for instance if: 

• You have a minor child in the UK who is either a British citizen or who has lived in the UK for at least 7 years, or: 
• You have a genuine and long-term relationship (e..g spouse, civil partner, or unmarried partner) with someone who is either a British citizen has indefinite leave to remain, and the relationship started at a time when you had legal permission to be in the UK

Note that, in both cases, you will need to provide evidence of strong and compelling reasons why your partner and/or child cannot leave the UK in order to join you, i.e. it would lead to significant suffering/ hardship or very significant obstacles which could not ultimately be overcome. As such, neither having a UK-based child nor a UK-based partner is a guarantee that you will be allowed to remain in or return to the UK. 

Appealing the Decision to Deport or Remove You 

In general, there are only limited circumstances in which you can appeal against a deportation order, such as the following: 

• You have substantial evidence that being deported from the UK would breach your human rights, e.g. your Article 8 right to family and private life 
• You have pre-settled status or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme 
• You are an S2 healthcare visitor
• You are a frontier worker 

The Home Office will generally first need to accept that you have legitimate grounds for appealing against your deportation order. 

You must generally submit your appeal request to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) within 14 days of receiving the order.  You will then need to attend a hearing and provide evidence in support of your appeal. 

If your appeal is successful, your deportation order should then be revoked. If it is unsuccessful, you can then ask for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber). However, you should only do so if you think there was a legal error with the first tribunal’s ruling, such as getting the law wrong or applying the wrong law. 

Note that, if you have already appealed unsuccessfully, there is no guaranteed right of appeal against a refusal of revocation of a deportation order. In general, you will only receive the right of appeal if you have received an associated refusal of protection status or human rights claim, or the revocation of your protection status.

Grounds for Deportation 

There are a number of circumstances in which an individual without indefinite leave to remain in the UK may be deported on conducive grounds – that is, grounds which are considered conducive to the public interest. If you have received a deportation order, this is generally because your remaining in the UK has been deemed contrary to the public good, often because of a criminal conviction.  

Note that deportation is different to administrative removal; the latter applies in situations where the recipient is not necessarily deemed a threat to the public interest but does not have legal permission to reside in the UK.

Criminal Activity

In the case of criminal activity, you may receive a deportation order if one of the following circumstances applies: 

• You have received a criminal sentence of at least 12 months of imprisonment 
• You have received more than one criminal sentence which, combined, total at least 12 months of imprisonment 
• You have received a suspended sentence order of at least 6 months 
• You have been convicted of a crime which caused ‘serious harm’
  • This will be decided at the discretion of the Secretary of State, but refers to crimes which caused significant physical, psychological, emotional, or economic harm, either to a specific victim, numerous victims, or to society as a whole.
• You are a ‘persistent offender’
  • This refers to individuals who demonstrate a pattern of offending and, as such, are considered to have shown a general disregard for the law. Persistent offences could refer to a number of circumstances, such as a number of serious offences in a short period of time, a number of offences which escalate in seriousness over time, or a number of minor offences over a longer period of time.

Other Circumstances that Can Lead to Deportation Orders

In cases where there has been no convicted criminal activity or the 12 months’ imprisonment threshold is not met, a deportation order may still be granted, such as in the following circumstances: 

• You are deemed to be a threat to national security 
• A court has recommended your deportation 
• You were involved in gun crime or serious drug offences even if you were ultimately sentenced to less than 12 months’ imprisonment 
• There is compelling evidence suggesting that your conduct/presence in the UK has caused or is likely to cause serious or high harm 
• You have either participated in or assisted with a fake marriage 
• You have assisted or tried to assist in another person fraudulently receiving leave to remain in the UK 

Note that this list is not exhaustive and deportation decisions are ultimately at the discretion of the Secretary of State, based on when they consider deportation to be conducive to the public good.

The Effect of a Deportation Order  

A deportation order has the effect of communicating that you are no longer legally present in the UK and must leave. The Home Office will generally arrange for your removal from the country. In the meantime, you will generally be required to reside in a detention centre except in certain cases where doing so would be detrimental to your wellbeing, such as if you are pregnant or have a physical disability. 

Once your removal from the UK has been organised, you should receive at least 3 days’ notice before you are removed from the country. 

Once you have left the UK, you will not be able to re-enter whilst you still have an active deportation order. As such, you will have to apply for the revocation of your deportation order before re-entering the country. This is because deportation orders do not have a fixed duration – they need to be officially revoked before you can re-enter the UK. 

Note also that the revocation of a deportation order is not the same thing as permission to enter the UK. If your deportation order is successfully revoked, permission to enter or remain in the UK will need to be granted separately. 

When you cannot be removed from the UK?

In general, you will not be able to be removed from the UK if you can prove that your removal would breach your human rights (e.g. your Article 8 right to family life) or if there are active legal challenges against the decision to deport you. If you have appealed against your deportation order, your deportation will not be able to take place until the appeals process has concluded. 

If you have exhausted your appeal options, on the other hand, the Home Office will organise your removal from the UK. In this event, you will need to apply for the revocation of your deportation order once you have already left the UK. 

Request to Revoke a Deportation Order  

When requesting a revocation of your deportation order, you can apply to either an Entry Clearance Officer or directly to the Home Office. When applying for the revocation, there is no specific application form which you will need to submit, but you will need to make sure to provide the following information: 

• Your full name
• Your date of birth 
• Your nationality 
• Your current location/address 
• Your Home Office reference number 
• The date of your deportation (if applicable) 
• A detailed explanation of why the deportation order should be revoked and details of any change in circumstances which have occurred since the deportation order was first issued 

In the event that you submit your revocation request to an Entry Clearance Officer, they will be responsible for referring the request, and will need to provide your full name, date of birth, nationality, and Home Office reference number (where applicable). If your revocation request is successful, you will be informed by the Home Office.

Consideration of Request to Revoke

When considering your request for the revocation of your deportation order, the Home Office will take into account a range of circumstances, including the following: 

• why your deportation order was initially issued (e.g. if you were deemed to be a threat to national security or if you were sentenced to over 12 months’ imprisonment) 
• any representations which you submitted in support of your application for the revocation of your DO
• the interests of the community (i.e. whether your continued presence in the UK presents a threat to the public good) 
• Your own interests, e.g. if there are compassionate circumstances which provide support for your continued presence in the UK, or if being prevented from living in the UK would breach your human rights

In general, consideration will be given to the risk you are considered to pose to the community versus the harm which would likely be caused to you by your continued absence from the UK. 

Representations Made Before Person Deported  

Before your deportation from the UK, you may submit additional legal considerations in support of your continued presence in the UK. In general, these representations will focus on human rights considerations or if you have protected status (if you have refugee status, for example). 

The Home Office may revoke the deportation order on the basis of these representations. If they do not revoke the order, the Home Office must then consider whether the representations which you have submitted qualify as a fresh human rights or protection claim. The representations will count as a fresh claim if the following two conditions are met: 

• Your further submissions are significantly different to the material which you submitted prior to receiving a deportation order 
• If, in combination with the material which you previously submitted, the new submission has a realistic chance of success as a fresh claim (e.g. you are likely to be granted protection status on the basis of the material which you have now submitted)

If your representations meet the threshold for a new claim but are still rejected, you will now be entitled to appeal the decision in the event that the Home Office proceeds to reject your human rights claim or your protection claim. 

Decision to Revoke a Deportation Order  

In the event that your deportation order is revoked, the front of your deportation order will be clearly marked as revoked. The Act under which the order was revoked should also be clearly stated.

You will also be notified of the decision to revoke your deportation order. 

Note that, if you have already left the UK when your deportation is revoked, you will still need to have legal grounds to re-enter the UK, e.g. obtaining a UK visa. 

Continuing Liability to Be Returned to Prison 

In some cases, where you have received a deportation order in response to criminal activity, you may be deported from the UK while you are serving your UK prison sentence. You can be deported in this way via either the Early Removal Scheme or the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme. 

If you were serving a UK prison sentence at the time of your deportation, but were deported from the UK under the Early Removal Scheme or the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme, you will be liable to be returned to prison in the event that you re-enter the UK while the duration of your prison sentence is still ongoing. If you were sentenced to a 5-year UK prison sentence, for example, but were deported during this period, you would be liable to be sent back to prison if you re-entered the UK during the 5-year period of your original prison sentence. This is the case even if your deportation order has since been revoked.

Allowed appeals against deportation order  

Appeals are not always possible in the case of deportation orders. The Home Office will generally first have to allow your appeal. 

There are limited situations in which you may be allowed to appeal against a deportation order, such as: 

• You have substantial evidence that being deported from the UK would breach your human rights, e.g. your Article 8 right to family and private life 
• You have pre-settled status or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme 
• You are an S2 healthcare visitor
• You are a frontier worker

If your right to appeal is accepted by the Home Office and your appeal is successful, the Home Office will also need to consider granting you leave to remain in the UK. In general, if your appeal is successful and your deportation order is revoked then you will be granted leave to remain in the UK. In the event that your appeal is successful on grounds of your Article 8 rights, for example, you will generally be granted leave to remain in the UK for a period of up to 30 months, as deemed appropriate by the Secretary of State.

Being Taken into Detention

After receiving a UK deportation order, you will generally be taken into detention. This may occur when you are attending a check-in at an immigration reporting centre, for example.

If you are taken into detention, this generally means that you will have to reside in a detention centre until your removal from the UK. There are some exceptions to this, however, as outlined in the next section.

When in detention, you have a number of rights which must be respected, such as: 

• the right to visitors, to receive mail and phone calls, and to use the internet 
• the right to apply for bail (i.e. to live outside of a detention centre whilst waiting for your deportation) 
• the right to keep your personal property 
• the right to communicate with people outside the detention centre, e.g. your legal representatives and your friends and family 
• the right to remain with your family in the event that they are also detained

Once your deportation has been arranged, you should receive at least 3 days’ notice.

If you are currently in detention and have concerns about your rights not being met, contact IAS today.

Getting Bail

In some cases, you will not be required to reside in a detention centre whilst waiting for your deportation. In this scenario, you can apply for bail, which allows you to live elsewhere in the period of time before you are removed from the UK. 

If you are particularly vulnerable to harm from living in a detention centre, you can apply for bail. This is likely to apply if you are pregnant, physically disabled, or due to mental health considerations, for example.

How can IAS help?

Obtaining a deportation order revocation can be incredibly complicated. This is because there are limited situations in which it is possible to secure a revocation and the burden of evidence is very high. 

As such, if you are planning to apply for revocation of your deportation order, it is strongly recommended that you seek legal assistance. At IAS, we can help you with every stage of the process, from navigating the UK’s complex immigration rules and regulations, submitting your revocation request if you have already left the UK, to appealing the deportation order when it is first issued. 

We can also help you to submit an asylum claim if you satisfy the eligibility criteria. Contact us today on +44 (0)333 414 9244 to learn more about our full range of services and help ensure that the revocation application process runs as smoothly as possible.