You received a visa refusal
A visa refusal usually arrives with a reason, and the reason is worth more than the rest of the letter put together. Whether the answer to it is an appeal, a review or a fresh application depends on the route you applied under, and your letter says which.
What this letter usually is
A refusal letter tells you an application was not granted and states why. It commonly points to a requirement the deciding office says was not met — a document, a sum, a purpose, a history — and sometimes to the paragraph of the rules it relied on. Some refusals can be challenged; some can only be followed by a new application, and the letter is where that is said.
What it usually asks for
Usually nothing: a refusal is not a request. What it commonly offers instead is a route — an appeal, a review, a request to reconsider — and what that route needs from you. If your letter offers one, it names who to write to and by when. If it offers none, do not assume none exists: ask the office that decided, in writing, what routes are open — a letter does not always print every one — and prepare the new application alongside that, not instead of it.
The deadlines that commonly apply
Where a refusal can be challenged, the window is commonly short and counted from the date you received the letter, not the date on it. Your letter names who to write to and by when, or it does not. A letter that names no route does not mean there is none: a review or a challenge the letter did not print can still have a short window of its own, so ask the deciding office — in writing, and soon — what routes are open, and treat a new application as a parallel path, not a substitute for asking.
Three ways to respond
- 1Reply asking for the full reasons and any notes the decision relied on, if the letter says you can.
- 2Use the route the letter offers, answering the stated reason point by point, with the missing evidence attached.
- 3Prepare a new application that answers the reason given, with a covering letter that says what has changed.
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Frequently asked questions
CraftMyLetter writes and delivers letters. It is not legal advice, we are not a law firm, and nothing here is a statement of what any law requires.