What Is a Fresh Claim? When You Get a Second Chance

Last updated: 7 October 2026

Photo: Arbornet Folders - Rex Roof

A fresh claim is a second chance. After your asylum claim has been refused and your appeal rights have been exhausted, you can still submit new material to the Home Office and ask for the case to be reopened. If the Home Office accepts that the new material amounts to a "fresh claim", you get a fresh decision and a fresh right of appeal. If it does not, the only route forward is judicial review. This article explains what counts as a fresh claim, how the Paragraph 353 test works, what evidence makes a fresh claim likely to succeed, and how to time the submission. The framework here is mainly the UK; equivalent processes exist elsewhere.[1]

For a wider view of the asylum process, see the asylum guide collection. For appeal procedures generally, see the appeal guide.

What Is a Fresh Claim?

A fresh claim is a new submission of material — usually evidence, but sometimes legal arguments — to the Home Office after your previous asylum claim has been finally refused. The submission is called "further submissions" in Home Office language. The Home Office decides whether the further submissions amount to a "fresh claim" under Paragraph 353 of the Immigration Rules. If yes, you get a new decision with a new right of appeal. If no, you do not.[2]

Paragraph 353: the test

Paragraph 353 of the Immigration Rules provides that submissions amount to a fresh claim if they are significantly different from material that has previously been considered. The submissions will only be significantly different if the content has not already been considered and, taken together with the previously considered material, would create a realistic prospect of success notwithstanding the previous rejection.

The test has two parts. First, the new material must not have been considered before. Second, when added to the old material, it must give a realistic prospect of success on appeal. The Home Office cannot reject a fresh claim simply because it disagrees with the new evidence — it must ask whether a hypothetical immigration judge could reasonably accept it.

What Counts as New Material?

The strongest fresh claims rest on genuinely new material. Several categories typically qualify.[3]

• Changed country conditions: Conditions in the country of origin have deteriorated since the original decision — coups, regime changes, new repressive laws, new outbreaks of violence.
• New expert evidence: A country expert report addressing matters not previously raised, or applying current evidence to the claimant's profile.
• New medical evidence: A medico-legal report (MLR) prepared after refusal documenting torture injuries or PTSD.
• New documentary evidence: Court documents, summons, family threats, photographs that were not previously available.
• New sur place activity: Political activity abroad after the refusal that creates new risk on return — e.g. anti-regime protest participation.
• New family circumstances: Children born in the UK whose interests under section 55 BCIA must be assessed.
• New legal authorities: A new country guidance case or new appellate decision changing the legal landscape.

What does not count

Material that was available at the time of the original decision but was not produced does not generally amount to a fresh claim — unless the failure to produce it is excused by, for example, mental health issues at the time. Repeating the same arguments with no new material will fail. Producing evidence of marginal relevance will fail. The Home Office is entitled to look at the substance, not just the form.

How to Submit Further Submissions in the UK

Further submissions in the UK must usually be submitted in person at the Further Submissions Unit (FSU) in Liverpool. There are exceptions for vulnerable claimants and for those represented by certain regulated providers. The submission must include all the material relied on, with a covering letter setting out why it amounts to a fresh claim and engaging directly with the Paragraph 353 test.[4]

1. Prepare the bundle: Include all new evidence, with index, page numbers, and dates.
2. Write the covering letter: Identify what is new, why it is significant, and which legal grounds it engages.
3. Address Paragraph 353 directly: State that the material is significantly different from what was previously considered and gives a realistic prospect of success.
4. Submit at FSU Liverpool: Book an appointment via the Home Office. Bring originals where possible.
5. Wait for the decision: The Home Office may accept the fresh claim, refuse and grant appeal rights, or refuse and not grant appeal rights (a Paragraph 353 refusal).

The Role of Expert Reports in Fresh Claims

Expert reports are frequently the most persuasive new material in a fresh claim. A targeted country expert report, addressing the claimant's specific profile and using current sources, can shift the analysis significantly. Several categories of fresh claim are particularly strengthened by expert evidence.[5]

• Changed country conditions: Expert evidence quantifying and documenting the change.
• Profile-matched risk: Where the original refusal applied generic country information, an expert report applying current evidence to the claimant's specific profile can change the calculus.
• Internal relocation: An expert addressing why relocation is not viable for this individual.
• Sur place activity: Evidence of how the regime monitors and targets diaspora activity.

Where new expert evidence is properly directed to the legal questions in issue, and where it is supported by current sources, it can readily satisfy the realistic prospect threshold under Paragraph 353.
UK Home Office, Asylum Policy Instruction: Further Submissions (2024)

If the Fresh Claim Is Refused

If the Home Office decides that further submissions do not amount to a fresh claim under Paragraph 353, there is no right of appeal. The only route is judicial review — challenging the Home Office's decision on Paragraph 353 in the Upper Tribunal. The judicial review test is whether a reasonable Home Office could have reached the conclusion it did.[6]

Judicial review of Paragraph 353 refusals has a moderate success rate. Courts have repeatedly criticised the Home Office for setting the threshold too high or substituting its own view for that of a hypothetical judge. Strong cases for judicial review involve clear new material that should plainly have been treated as significant.

Equivalent Processes in Other Countries

Other countries have analogous fresh claim mechanisms, though the names and procedures vary.[7]

Conclusion

A fresh claim is a real second chance — but only if you have new material that satisfies the legal test. The strongest fresh claims rest on changed country conditions, current expert reports, new documentary evidence, or new sur place activity. Submit through the Further Submissions Unit in Liverpool with a clear covering letter addressing Paragraph 353. If the fresh claim is refused, judicial review may be available — but you have only a short time to act. To commission an expert report supporting a fresh claim, use the find expert witness service. For broader asylum guidance, see the asylum guide collection.