Immigration Fees and Services

It is our aim to charge fees for our services which are fair to you, in that they are clear and reasonable, and are also fair to us, in that they reflect our professional skill, expertise and experience and enable us to run a sustainable business.

We appreciate that immigration advice is not a ‘one size fits all’ area of law and different clients may want different levels of advice at different points in their immigration journey.  We therefore offer a range of services and packages and aim to be as flexible as we can in responding to your needs. 

Start with an Initial Consultation

For new matters, we offer an initial 45 minute consultation.  This can be either remotely on Zoom or Teams (we will send you a link), face to face, telephone, email (or a combination of these).  It might include us reading documents before the consultation and considering any questions you might send us in advance, which we encourage you to do to make the most of the consultation time.

We do not offer an initial free consultation, which are usually used just to set out the costs, rather than for advice.  We have found that this is not a good use of anyone’s time.

In the initial consultation, we will give you clear advice on the case, your options, the costs and what needs to be done. We will send you written confirmation of our advice. You are then free to choose whether to instruct us to assist you further (in which case the initial fee will usually be taken off our overall fee quote, unless we are charging hourly) or to continue with the case on your own.

Our Fixed Fees for consultations start at £240 + VAT (£288), depending on the nature of the issue, the amount of preparatory work to be undertaken and the seniority of the person who will be providing the advice. 

Application Checking Service

If you have prepared an application yourself and are fairly confident that you have everything right but want the reassurance of a second, expert pair of eyes, we offer a Checking Service whereby we will review your completed application and the supporting documents.

Where we identify errors or omissions in the application form or in the supporting documents, we will bring these to your attention, explain what is needed and identify any matters which might give rise to a refusal.

A checking service involves reviewing applications ranging from the complete and 'ready to go' through to applications which require a lot of work and/or rectification.  The responsibility for ensuring the application is both appropriate and complete is a very serious one, as we are effectively taking responsibility for an application which we have not prepared ourselves.   We usually offer a Fixed Fee which is half the amount of our fee for the full service. Alternatively, we can provide the checking service whereby we charge based on the amount of time we spend. The hourly rate charged will depend on the seniority of the person who will be undertaking the checking service.

Full Representation

For full representation our fee, whether a fixed fee or charged at an hourly rate, will generally include the following:

• Initial instructions – remote, face-to-face, email or telephone, either directly with you, or with a family member or other trusted person if you are outside the UK
• Checking your eligibility for the proposed application
• Providing you with a Case Plan confirming your instructions, our advice and the steps we will be taking on your behalf and a Costs of your Case setting out the costs involved
• Advising on any areas of difficulty with your application
• Providing a checklist of the documents which you will need for your application
• Assistance with setting up and reviewing your online application
• Providing template letters where required
• Checking all supporting documents
• Providing a detailed covering letter to UKVI
• Assistance with submitting your application
• Written advice on receipt of decision, including advice on steps to be taken in the future

Where we offer a fixed fee, it will include all work up to the date of submission of the application and any routine steps taken thereafter.  Where the application generates additional work, we will charge for that work on an hourly basis which we will confirm with you.

Dependants

If a dependant is applying at the same time as the main applicant, we will generally charge an additional fee of 40% for each adult dependant and 20% for each minor dependant.   This covers time spent identifying and checking the additional forms and documents required for each dependant.

How We Charge

Fixed Fees

In some cases, where the work we are going to do can be reasonably defined in advance, we can offer a ‘Fixed Fee’ for the work to be undertaken.  The benefit of a Fixed Fee is that it provides you and us with greater certainty of the costs.

Hourly Rates

In other cases, our fees will be based on the amount of time we spend working on your case, at an hourly rate.  We will try to estimate the likely costs in your case at the beginning, or as soon as possible afterwards. We can provide no guarantee that the final charge will not exceed the estimate because there are many factors outside our control that affect the level of costs. If it becomes clear that the costs will be greater than the amount estimated, then we will give you a revised estimate and the reason for the revision. 

Our hourly rates vary according to the seniority of the team member and the nature of the work. VAT will be charged where appropriate:

Discounted Fee Agreement

If we are assisting you with Judicial Review proceedings or other court litigation, we might be able to offer you a Discounted Fee Agreement (DFA).  This involves us charging at a discounted hourly rate if your case is not successful.

We will tell you if we believe that your case is suitable for a DFA.

Disbursements

The fees quoted are the legal fees, paid to us for the work we do.  There might be other fees you will have to pay, sometimes called ‘disbursements’.  These are costs such as visa or application fees, the Immigration Health Surcharge, court fees, fees for medical reports or translations, and courier or Special/Recorded Delivery fees.  We will advise you at the beginning of the case of any anticipated disbursements.

VAT

We are required to add VAT at the rate of 20% to your bill if your place of lawful residence is in the UK. If your ‘place of belonging’ is outside the UK then you are not liable to have VAT added to your bill.

Administrative Review

Certain UKVI decisions can be challenged by way of an application for Administrative Review.

We will advise you whether there is any merit in making such an application.  The legal costs for preparing and submitting an application for Administrative Review will depend on the reasons for refusal, the mistake made by UKVI and the complexity of the arguments to be presented.

The costs are likely to be in the range £500 - £1600 + VAT.

Appeals

There are now very limited Rights of Appeal against UKVI decisions. Generally the fee for an appeal will range from £3000 - £6000 + VAT not including the costs of the advocate (barrister or solicitor) on the day/s of the hearing.

The costs of the barrister will depend on the nature of your case and how experienced the barrister is. Read about barristers here.  

The fixed fee or the estimate you are given for appeal work will generally include the following level of service:

• Completing and submitting Notice of Appeal with grounds of appeal
• Preparing witness statements for you and anyone else who will be attending the appeal on your behalf
• Advising on evidence in support of your appeal
• Considering the ‘Respondent’s Bundle’ of documents which UKVI will prepare in advance of the appeal
• Preparing a complete, indexed and paginated ‘Appellant’s Bundle’ of statements and other documents
• Submitting your Bundle to the Tribunal and to UKVI in advance of the appeal
• Meeting with you remotely or in person to plan for the appeal, go through your evidence, answer your questions and describe the procedure on the day
• Arranging for you to be represented at the hearing of your appeal by a barrister, experienced in immigration law;
• Providing the barrister with detailed instructions regarding your appeal;
• Considering the written decision of the Judge following the hearing of the appeal and advising on next steps.

Time Scales

The time it takes an application to be prepared and submitted will depend on the type of application, the complexity of the application, the time taken to assemble all the supporting documents, and in some cases the time needed to meet various requirements of the rules.

The time taken by UKVI to make a decision on an application will also vary greatly.  The average times for applications made outside the UK can be seen in the UKVI visa processing times. The service standards for applications made within the UK can be seen in the UKVI Service Standards.

Example fixed fees and likely costs where we charge hourly

These are examples of some of our more common applications, but we are experienced in the full range of immigration and asylum work and will be ready to give you an estimate or a fixed fee.