Generally, if your immigration application is not an asylum case and you are in England or Wales, you cannot get Legal Aid for your case.
Legal aid helps people with no or little income to pay for the cost of getting legal advice. The government allocates funds for this purpose, and the legal aid fees are paid directly to the legal advice provider. A legal aid lawyer does not work for the Home Office.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, Legal Aid is still available for non-asylum immigration cases.
However, if you believe that your human rights (particularly Articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which you can read more about below) would be breached if you are not given access to Legal Aid funding, then you may be able to apply for exceptional legal aid funding.
In this blog, we outline:
What is exceptional case funding?
Exceptional case funding is an application for funding that is made to the Legal Aid Agency by individuals whose immigration issue is not eligible for Legal Aid, but who cannot afford to pay legal fees.
You can no longer get Legal Aid for the following issues:
- family migration cases, including family reunification applications under the Refugee Convention
- advice about student visas
- advice about visitor visas
- challenging a deportation, if your case is not based on asylum or Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights
- Article 8 cases – the human right to family and private life
The purpose of an exceptional case funding application is to explain to the Legal Aid Agency that it would not be fair for you to present your case without the help of a lawyer. To justify the request for exceptional funding for a lawyer from the Legal Aid Agency, you will also need to prove that you have a strong case (that is more likely to succeed than to fail), and that you would not be able to pay for a legal representative yourself.
If your application is rejected, you can apply (with evidence) for an internal review of the refusal to the Legal Aid Agency. You can read more about this here.
How to apply for exceptional case funding
The Public Law Project provides information and assistance in some exceptional funding cases. They also have various guides about exceptional case funding, which you can access here.
The organisation Bail for Immigration Detainees has a guide to applying for exceptional case funding in deportation cases, which you can access here.
I want to to know when i will get the second interview for my asylum case who will guide me in this matter i have been waiting for so long.
Hello Sana, thank you for your message. I’m sorry to hear of the distress you’ve been facing. Unfortunately, many people are in the same position. We’d suggest taking a look at our Toolkit page on asylum interviews to help you prepare for when the time comes, and to be aware of your rights. You can access it here: https://righttoremain.org.uk/toolkit/asylumiv/