IMMIGRATION BAIL APPLICATION

What Is An Immigration Bail?

An Immigration Bail is a request or an application either to the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) or to the Immigration Judge at First Tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum) for release of a person from immigration detention. If you have been detained by the Home Office, UKVI or know someone who has been detained then you need to seek specialist immigration legal advice. Freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment is a fundamental human right, legally enforceable throughout the UK by virtue of the Human Rights Act 1998.

Bail Application To Secretary Of State (Secretary Of State Bail)

You can apply to the Home Secretary for immigration bail from the first day you arrive in the UK. This is called ’Secretary of State Bail’. To apply for Secretary of State Bail, you should download and fill in form BAIL401 explaining why you’re asking for bail.

You can also get the form BAIL 401 from:

• the welfare officer, if you’re in an Immigration Removal Centre
• your detention paperwork pack, if you’re in a prison

Your application for Secretary of State Bail will be decided by Home Office, UKVI staff and there will not be a bail hearing.

Bail Application To First Tier Tribunal (FTT) Immigration Judge

You can apply for immigration bail to the independent ‘First-tier Tribunal’ if you are in detention and arrived in the UK more than 8 days ago. Your application for immigration bail will be decided by an independent immigration judge at a bail hearing. To apply for bail to First Tier Tribunal, you should complete bail application form B1.

If you can’t download the bail form B1 yourself, you can:

• ask the staff at the place where you’re being held
• contact the tribunal – by phone on 0300 123 1711 or by email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Remember at the bail hearing that the burden of proof in justifying detention lies, given the presumption in favour of bail, on the Secretary of State to the balance of probabilities.

Automatic Referral For Bail

The Home Office will automatically refer you to the First-tier Tribunal for a bail hearing if all of the following are true:

• you’ve been in detention for 4 months or more
• you aren’t being detained in the interests of national security
• there’s no action being taken to deport you from the UK
• you haven’t applied for bail to the First-tier Tribunal in the last 4 months

They will make an application on your behalf using all the information they have. You can refuse the referral, or choose to make your own bail application. The Home Office will apply on your behalf every 4 months unless you apply for bail yourself.

What Happens At The First-tier Tribunal Hearing?

There will usually be a hearing to decide if you should be granted immigration bail. This will happen a few days after your immigration bail application is received by the First Tier Tribunal– you’ll receive a ‘notice of hearing’ from the First Tier Tribunal to tell you when it is.

You probably won’t be in the room for the hearing. It’s more likely to happen over a video-link instead. The Home Office will send the tribunal a document listing the reasons they think you should not get bail (a ‘Bail Summary’). They will also send you or your appointed legal representatives a copy.

When Is An Immigration Bail Most Likely To Granted?

This is a difficult question to answer, but some general guidance is possible. You are most likely to be granted an immigration bail in the following circumstances:

• Where a person’s removal from the UK is not imminent, it is difficult to justify ongoing immigration detention and an immigration bail application may well succeed
• Where removals to a certain country are not possible for practical or other reasons, immigration detention would normally be unlawful and an immigration bail application should succeed
• Where a person is a survivor of torture, they should not be detained by the Home Office UKVI
• Unaccompanied minors should never be detained other than for a very short period in their own best interests
• Families should not generally be detained other than for short periods before removal

Also, you are more likely to get immigration bail if you have a place to stay. Furthermore, your immigration bail application is also more likely to succeed if you have at least one ‘Financial Condition Supporter’. This is a person who:

• will pay money if you don’t follow the conditions of your immigration bail
• can attend your bail hearing

You should give information about where you’ll stay and your Financial Condition Supporters in the bail application form.

You may find it harder to get an immigration bail if you:

• have broken immigration bail conditions in the past
• have a criminal record, and there’s a risk you might reoffend
• are due to be removed from the country

If you were refused immigration bail in the last 28 days, you won’t get another hearing unless your situation has changed significantly. Explain what you think has changed in your immigration bail application.

What Are The Conditions Of Immigration Bail?

If you are granted an immigration bail, there will be at least one condition you have to obey.

You might have to:

• report regularly to an immigration official
• attend an appointment or hearing
• be restricted on where you can live
• have an electronic monitoring tag
• have restrictions on the work or studies you can do
• obey any other condition decided by the person granting your bail

Financial Condition

You or your financial condition supporter might have to promise to pay money if you break one of the other conditions of your bail. This is called a ‘financial condition’.

Change The conditions Of Your Immigration Bail

These conditions of your immigration bail can be changed after you are granted immigration bail. If you do not follow the terms of your immigration bail you might:

• have your bail conditions changed so that there are tighter restrictions
• be charged with a crime
• have to pay the money agreed at the hearing – or your Financial Condition Supporter might have to pay
• be returned to detention

You can ask to change (‘vary’) the conditions of your immigration bail, for example, if you need to move to a new address. If the First-tier Tribunal granted you immigration bail, fill in form B2 and send it to your nearest First-tier Tribunal hearing centre. The Home Office might oppose your request.

If the management of your immigration bail has been transferred to the Home Office contact them instead. If you’re on Secretary of State bail, speak to an immigration officer.

You must continue to obey the conditions of your bail until a decision has been made to change them.

How Can We Help With Your Immigration Bail?

Our expert team of immigration bail solicitors can represent you in your application for immigration bail and carry out all the work on your bail application until you get a decision on your bail application. The work of our our immigration bail solicitors will include the following:

• Assessing your eligibility for immigration bail by considering all the relevant information including the past immigration history, personal circumstances, reasons for seeking leave to remain in the UK, address where you can stay after release;
• Discuss your immigration bail application in detail with you and advising you about the weaknesses and strengths of your immigration bail;
• Visiting you in immigration detention centre, if necessary, to gather all the relevant information and documents;
• Attending upon any other witnesses who will attend the court bail hearing and taking their witness statements to be submitted in support of the bail application;
• Advising you about the documentary evidence to be submitted in support of your immigration bail application;
• Assessing the documentary evidence to be submitted in support of the bail application and discussing the same with you;
• Completing the bail application form and submitting the same to First Tier Tribunal (FTT);
• Preparing detailed grounds for immigration bail in support of the immigration bail application;
• Preparing a covering letter to introduce and support the immigration bail application;
• Liaising with the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) for listing of your bail hearing;
• Preparing a brief to Counsel (Barrister) instructing the Barrister to represent you in your immigration bail hearing before the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) Judge;
• Assessing the immigration bail summary received from the Home Office and discussing the same with you;
• Doing all the follow-up work until your immigration bail application is decided.

Our Fee For Immigration Bail Application

Our fixed fee for immigration bail application are given in the table below:

The agreed fixed fee will depend on the complexity of your bail application and the volume of casework involved in the application. In addition to our fixed fee for immigration bail application, you will also have to pay the barrister’s fee for representing you in your bail hearing before the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) Immigration Judge.