I do not write these posts to alarm anyone. I write them because the people on the receiving end of ECAA decisions deserve to know what is actually happening, and what they can do about it.
Since Friday 15 May 2026, we at Strand have received one expedited approval and two refusals on our ECAA files. We are aware of another five to seven refusals across the wider practitioner community in the same week.
But two refusals in seven days is, for us, unprecedented. We do not ordinarily receive two ECAA refusals in a year, let alone within a single week. When that happens on a firm’s files, it tells you something about the system, not the files. And what is coming through is, on balance, could be bad.
The Procedural Point We Are Challenging
Of the refusals we have seen since 15 May, none was preceded by a request for further information or a minded-to-refuse letter.
That is a problem. Every one of these refusals turns on credibility or genuineness, which means the Home Office is exercising discretion under ECAA 4.2 and 4.3. Established public law requires the Secretary of State to put credibility concerns to an applicant before refusing on that basis. There is a duty to make sufficient enquiry and a duty to give effective reasons . Refusing without ever raising the concerns breaches procedural fairness. We are putting this directly to the Home Office on the affected files.
What the Refusals Are Actually Saying
The refusals are not minor document quibbles. They are full-scope attacks across multiple grounds.
1. The Home Office doesn’t believe your address.
They check:
Council Tax records , are you or anyone else registered as living there?
Booking.com, Sykes Cottages, Airbnb — is your home being rented as a holiday let?
Your tenancy agreement clause by clause m does it contradict itself (rent monthly vs paid annually in cash, utilities included vs you pay them)?
If your address fails these checks, the refusal comes on residence.
2. Your invoices must meet HMRC’s official requirements.
Every invoice must show:
A unique invoice number in sequence
Correct maths (quantity × rate = total)
A due date that comes after the issue date
The same total at the top and at the bottom
Your VAT number and the VAT rate, if you are VAT-registered
Payment details so clients know how to pay
Small mistakes on a handful of invoices are being treated as evidence the whole business is not real. Go through every invoice you have sent in the last five years today and check it against the official list.
Invoices: what they must include (gov.uk)
3. Medical absences abroad are now held to a very high bar.
If you applied for ILR after time abroad for medical treatment, you must show:
The same treatment was not available in the UK
You were medically unfit to travel
You actually tried to get help from the NHS
If you came back to the UK at any point during your absence, even for a short visit, those returns are being used against you.
4. Your business is reassessed from scratch at ILR.
Previous decisions in your favour no longer count
The Home Office is reopening the genuineness question at settlement stage
They go back five years and reassess everything
Treat your ILR application as if the Home Office has never seen the business before.
5. They are calling you employed, not self-employed.
If your invoices look like wage slips (same hourly rate every time, hours × rate = “wage”), the Home Office is using a tax rule called IR35 to refuse
The Home Office’s own guidance from November 2025 says IR35 should NOT decide ECAA cases
The correct test looks at the whole picture , multiple clients, who controls your work, who owns the equipment, who takes the business risk
When a refusal uses IR35 reasoning, it is a clear mistake. We can challenge it.
6. Working for family members , declare it openly.
The Home Office now runs Companies House searches on your customer companies
If a director shares your surname, lives at your address, or is your uncle, cousin, brother, they call it an “unusual link”
You cannot hide these connections, they will find them
Declare every family customer in your cover letter with the Companies House details and the commercial reason for the work.
7. Where your business operates must make sense.
The location of your suppliers must fit the location of your business
A Leicester business with London suppliers will be asked to explain
A good explanation exists (specialist supplier, wholesale pricing, ethnic supplier base) but you must give it
8. Your bank statements are being read line by line.
Transfers from your business account to your personal account must be labelled “wages” or “dividend” m if not, they say you are not running a real business
A business account drained to nearly zero each month , they say a real business keeps money in the account for expenses
Same-day cash withdrawals after a customer pays you , treated as a suspicious pattern
I Wrote About This in January
In “Home Office Scrutiny Is Up — Here’s What You Need to Do” (January 2026) I warned that minded-to-refuse letters were rising, invoice authenticity and business genuineness were the front lines, and ECAA was under the microscope. Everything in that post has now arrived, with one change: the Home Office is skipping the minded-to-refuse stage and refusing outright.
What You Can Do Now
If you have a file in the system
Audit your invoice template against the HMRC rules. VAT number on every invoice if you are VAT-registered, varied rates by service, whole units, correct arithmetic, payment details.
Tighten up your banking. References on every transfer between business and personal accounts. Keep working capital in the business account. No more same-day cash sweeps.
Confirm your Council Tax is in your name and that you have utility bills covering the qualifying period.
If any of your customers are connected to you by family, declare it in the cover letter with Companies House details and the commercial logic.
Build your travel schedule and reconcile it to carrier records. Any 180-day absence window in the last five years needs a CR 3.4(c) evidence pack now, not when an evidence request arrives (because it may not).
What We Are Doing About It
The ECAA practitioner working group is preparing a substantive report and coordinated submission to the Home Office, responding to the Simon Ridley letter and addressing the patterns above, including the missing minded-to-refuse letters and the misapplication of IR35 reasoning. That work is expected to land in the coming weeks. I will write again when it does.
Need tailored advice ? 📩 Reply to this post or book a consultation with Strand Legal Consultancy.
Written by William O’Neill, Immigration Expert & Founder, The Mobility Brief 🔗 Read all posts | 🟢 Join our WhatsApp Channel