Immigration lawyers

Migrating to the UK with your family can be a stressful and complicated process. Our immigration specialists can help you and your dependants navigate the complex requirements and UK visa application process. Our in-depth knowledge of the immigration rules and visa application procedures means you will be fully supported and informed throughout the process.

We assist with the full array of family based visa applications, including:

• Partner applications
• Separated families
• EU Settlement Scheme applications
• Adult dependant visas (relatives)
• Children visa applications
• Parents of UK based children (including British and non-British children)
• Ramifications of family breakdowns
• Intercountry adoptions and surrogacy

For more information, please visit our What is Immigration Law page.

Employers are increasingly looking overseas to secure talent. We can assist both employers and individuals successfully navigate the immigration rules and eligibility criteria to find the best solution for their business/personal needs.

Our UK immigration solicitors have depth of knowledge across the full spectrum of work based visa routes, including:

• Skilled worker visa applications
• International sportsperson
• Business visitor visas
• Global talent
• UK ancestry
• Temporary Worker
• Hong Kong British National (Overseas)
• Applications by dependants

The UK remains one of the top destination countries for overseas students and our immigration lawyers can assist students and their sponsors ensure they have the correct immigration permissions in place to undertake their chosen course of study.

We also assist institutions to ensure compliance with their duties as licenced sponsors. We can assist with :

• Student visa applications
• Child student applications (for 4 to 17 years old wishing to study at an independent school in the UK)
• Sponsor licence applications and licence maintenance by institutions
• Advice to students on switching immigration category and routes to settlement

Visit visas are an important part of UK migration; they offer individuals and families the chance to stay connected, to marry, receive private medical treatment and get married in the UK. Visit visas also allow organisations and business persons the flexibility to come to the UK for short periods to carry out certain activities without the need for sponsorship.

Not all nationals require a UK visit visa to enter the UK for short periods but those that do will note that obtaining a visit visa can often be one of the most difficult visa application processes to successfully navigate.

With higher than average refusal rates when compared to other visa routes, it is important to carefully prepare a visit visa application as refusals can have long term impacts on a person’s ability to visit the UK. Once a visa has been issued, it is important to understand the strict rules on the activities a visitor can carry out in the UK.

Our UK immigration solicitors have extensive experience of handling complex visit visa applications and challenging negative decisions by way of judicial review. We are therefore well placed to provide professional legal advice for all types of visit visa applications and advise on the corresponding activities that are permitted upon arrival in the UK.

In October 2023, the Home Office introduced a new permission to travel regime known as the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme. The scheme, which is being rolled out in stages by nationality, requires that certain visitors to the UK obtain advance digital permission to travel in the form of an ETA. By April 2025, everyone who does not need a visa to visit the UK (known as “non-visas nationals”) or does not already have a UK immigration status, will need to apply for an ETA prior to travelling. This includes babies and children.

Everyone’s individual circumstances are different and they do not always fit neatly within the available UK immigration rules. Our expert team are highly experienced in identifying cases where viable discretionary applications may be made outside of the immigration rules, relying on the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), case law and guidance to successfully argue the case.

Our immigration lawyers understand the sensitivity of such cases, often involving overwhelming compassionate circumstances and we are ready to advise on such matters in an empathetic way.

We regularly assist with:

• Discretionary outside the rules applications
• Article 8 ECHR family life visa applications
• Article 3 ECHR cases (including health cases)
• Applications from long term overstayers
• Asylum claims
• Appeals and judicial review challenges against negative decisions in the above types of cases
• Advising local authorities in relation to the UK immigration position of children in their care

Securing indefinite leave to remain (ILR) is often a major achievement for foreign nationals living in the UK. It is an essential step for those wishing to settle permanently in the UK and it marks the end of having time restrictions placed on their length of residence in the UK. It is also a necessary process for those individuals wishing to become British citizens.

ILR (often referred to as settlement or settled status) can be achieved in many ways, with many immigration routes offering a path to settlement in the UK after a period of five years’ residence in the UK. There are immigration routes which provide a shorter trajectory, and also those that allow applicants to rely on their long residence in the UK to achieve this key milestone.

We assist with all varieties of settlement applications, including:

• Family visas
• EU Settlement Scheme applications
• Work based applications (skilled worker/Tier 2)
• Investor, entrepreneur, innovate and start up visa applications
• Global talent
• Long residence (10 years)
• UK ancestry
• Discretionary applications

Our UK immigration lawyers understand that immigration cases do not always go to plan. In the event that applications are refused or rejected, our immigration lawyers can guide you through the court process.

Our lawyers have extensive litigation experience and have acted for clients at all court levels from the First Tier Tribunal to the Supreme Court and Court of Justice of the EU.

We can assist with:

• Administrative reviews against Home Office decisions
• Appeals to the Immigration Tribunals and Appellate Courts
• Judicial review challenges to substantive decisions and delayed decision-making

British citizenship is often the final stage of the migration journey in the UK. It is an optional application for those choosing to make the UK their main home. Most adults will become British citizens through the process of naturalisation, with children registering to become British.

Our immigration solicitors can assist with all manner of nationality applications, from the more common naturalisation application to complex registration and passport applications based on entitlement to British citizenship. Our expertise extends to historic entitlement to British citizenship either by descent and/or birth in a former UK colony.

We are also experienced in representing clients in reconsideration applications upon refusal of applications, deprivation of citizenship and judicial review challenges to both the Home Office and Her Majesty’s Passport Office.