Most visitor visa refusals are about missing or weak proof, and you can fix that yourself. Some are not. In the cases below, applying again without a lawyer can make things worse. So Approvable stops and sends you to a licensed adviser, instead of selling you a check.
If any of these is true for you, Approvable will tell you, and point you to a licensed adviser instead of writing a report.
You were refused because the officer said you lied, used false documents or tried to trick them, in any country. This can mean a ban of several years.
You stayed longer than your visa allowed, you were sent out of a country, or you were stopped at a border.
You have a criminal record, a security warning, or a warning on the Schengen list of people to stop.
You were refused three times in a row for the same reason.
Your case is about human rights or asylum, or a child’s safety or care.
Someone is asking you to pay them and has promised you a visa.
Each visa has one main question. Knowing yours tells you which problems matter most.
Will you go home after your visit? The officer looks at your job, family, property, studies and past travel all together, not one at a time.
Check a Standard Visitor application →Is your passport real? Do your reason for going and your life at home fit a short visit to the Schengen area?
Check a Short-stay visa (type C) application →Does your trip make sense for someone like you, for what it will cost, and for how long you want to stay?
Check a Visitor visa (temporary resident visa) application →The law starts by assuming you want to stay in the US. In a short interview, often two or three minutes, the officer decides if your links to home are strong enough to show you will go back.
Check a B1/B2 visitor visa application →There is one list for each country, because each country has its own rules for advisers. These firms are not part of Approvable, and they charge for their advice. Before you book, look each one up on the official list of licensed advisers. Do not rely only on what the firm says about itself.
Verify against the Immigration Advice Authority's register
IAA registration F200800018
142 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9TR
+44 (0)20 7265 8888 · info@sainttalaw.com
General UK and business immigration firm operating since 2008, with bilingual English/Chinese service.
IAA registration F201100299
Spaces, 60 Cannon Street, London, EC4N 6NP
020 3813 5248
Large national firm, IAA accredited, handling cases from straightforward visitor visas through to complex refusals.
OISC registration F200700083
Central London (street address not published; contact by phone or email to book)
0203 178 2048 · info@firstmigration.com
OISC-regulated consultancy operating since 2007, with transparent fixed-price consultations.
Verify against the regional bar chamber (Rechtsanwaltskammer) lawyer search
Admitted, Rechtsanwaltskammer Berlin
Fasanenstraße 72, 10719 Berlin, Germany
+49 (0)30 883 86 86 · info@kanzlei-kocadag.de
For a refusal from a German consulate specifically. Handles Schengen visa refusals through to a lawsuit at the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin. Consultations in German, Turkish, English and French.
Fachanwalt für Migrationsrecht
Zweigertstraße 33, 45130 Essen, Germany
0201 879550 · kontakt@anwalt-diedrich.de
Also for a refusal from a German consulate specifically. Certified specialist in migration law; the firm’s own site covers visa refusal and the remonstration/lawsuit route.
A Schengen visa is one form, but each of the 26 member states runs its own appeal system - the two firms below only cover a refusal from a German consulate. If a different consulate refused you, look up a lawyer there instead through the EU's own directory: Find a lawyer (European e-Justice Portal)
Verify against the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants' public register
RCIC licence R509021
45 Sheppard Ave E, Suite 500B, North York, ON M2N 5W9, Canada
+1 416 726 0305
CICC-licensed consultant; the licence number above is published on the firm’s own site, matching the register’s R-plus-six-digit format.
Verify against the relevant state bar’s own attorney directory
State Bar of Texas
122 Tuam Street, Suite 200, Houston, TX 77006, USA
+1 713 527 9606 · avega@adanvega.com
Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; profile listed on the State Bar of Texas’s own directory. Reviews refusals for insufficient ties and immigrant-intent findings specifically.
Approvable receives no fee for this referral, and pays none.
Nobody may charge you for immigration advice in the United Kingdom unless they are regulated or exempt. If someone offers to “get you a visa” for a fee, that is a reason to walk away, not a service. Outside the UK, in Canada the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants keeps the equivalent register.
Approvable helps you check and prepare your own application. It is not immigration advice or legal advice. We cannot tell you if you will get the visa, and we do not guarantee that you will.