Who is allowed to provide immigration advice and services?

If you have an immigration issue and you need advice or services it is very important to approach an organisation which is officially registered as an immigration practitioner. Solicitors, barristers, legal executives and people like that are allowed to operate in this field but the focus of this article is on immigration advisers registered and regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA), previously known as the OISC.

Firms which are registered with the IAA (such as us) are allowed to provide immigration advice and services, but within specific limits. IAA-registered firms come in three levels, level 1, level 2 and level 3, and the level determines which kind of cases the firm can work on. Firms registered at the highest level, 3 (such as us) can carry out more types of work and more difficult types of work than firms that have a lower registration.

However, a firm that has level 1 registration can give advice and prepare quite a wide range of cases: visa applications, settlement application, British citizenship applications and so on.

So you must make certain that whoever you take advice from or instruct is (a) properly regulated and (b) is permitted to carry out work in that particular area.

So, for example, if you are minded to instruct an IAA-registered firm and you have an asylum case you should instruct a level 2 or level 3 firm, because level 1 firms are not allowed to work substantially in this area. And, for another example, if you have an appeal case you are best advised to instruct a level 3 firm, because only a level 3 firm can prepare an appeal case from start to finish.

If you have any issues or enquiries about these issues you are welcome to contact us at GSN Immigration.

Oliver Westmoreland

Senior Immigration Lawyer