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Frequently asked questions

Why choose ICS Legal?

We specialise in Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, British Nationality Law & European Law. Our lawyers provide honest, exceptional service to our clients. We believe that our service starts when we submit your application and we want our client to know we will keep them informed, answer there questions and your case worker will be just a phone call away.

What is the benefit of using our legal services when you want to come to the UK or extend or switch?

Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.

There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.

Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.

Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.

The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.

How can I trust your service?

We are regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). OISC is the government regulated body and it is a criminal offence if someone is providing Immigration advice without being regulated by the OISC. We are also members of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). JCWI is an independent national voluntary organisation, campaigning for justice and combating racism in immigration and asylum law and policy.

What happens in the initial consultation?

Your case worker would take some background information regarding yourself. Relevant questions would be asked to ascertain whether your case can be handled by our team. You will also be able to ask questions, understand what is required to meet the Immigration Rules, Nationality Law and EU Law where relevant. Should we be able to provide assistance, your case worker will give you a customer care letter whereby it would outline the service agreement and the cost associated.

What happens after the consultation?

After each consultation we aim to provide a consultation report which would outline what was discussed, the action plan and what to do next.

When I meet the caseworker and I disclose personal information, would this be disclosed to anyone else?

We have a procedure in place for ensuring client confidentiality. We keep the affairs of our clients and all information relating to our clients confidential, except where we are compelled to disclose information by reason of a legal or regulatory obligation.

What is a customer care letter?

A customer care letter from us will ensure that we outline the service we would be providing, it would also provide a break down of the costs associated so you can rest assure that there are no hidden charges and that fees do not go up unless changes are made (i.e. Home Office fees etc).

Once I sign the customer care letter and my case would possibly fail, do I still have to pay your fees?

We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents. We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.

Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors. Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.

Do you provide one day Premium Services?

Yes, we have a special provision with the Home Office and majority case decisions are made on the same day.

Do you do “No Win No Fee”?

As a private legal firm, we want to ensure we can provide the service you want. Our fees are very competitive and that is why we do not provide a No Win No Fee service as we do not feel the need to over charge our clients with such schemes.

How is the fees paid and are there any surprises?

With us, you will know exactly what we would be charging. The fees are to be paid through cheque, cash or bank transfer. Home Office fees can be paid to us and we can make the payment on behalf of you. If there is any changes in Home Office fees, we will let you know immediately.

How often would I get updated once my case have been submitted?

Our commitment to our clients is that we will update you every time we get an update from the Home Office. The waiting period can be a very daunting time as decisions can be life changing however the Home Office do set some guidelines on waiting times, but we intend to keep you updated throughout the process.

Can you guarantee an application?

No, and this is the same even if you use a no win no fee service, it would be impossible for anyone to guarantee a successful application. The likelihood of an application being successful can be given based on previous cases or success rates, however we do not operate such a policy of selling our services based on previous applications.

What is your aftercare service?

We aim to ensure that this service is not used by any of our clients, but there are times where even with the best possible applications are unsuccessful. As we take our clients cases personally, we would like to provide a helping hand. We have designed an aftercare service whereby if your case fails, then your case worker would be able to help you look at other formalities of staying in the UK should you have valid leave still remaining or help you make an out country application. Please note should you require appealing on your matter, we can only deal with the initial appeal and your application will be straight away referred to an advisor who deals with representations.

Can I give you feedback on your service?

It is vital that all our clients can provide honest feedback, we would encourage this and this helps us to become better on our service delivery.

Can you help me find a UK Employer to sponsor a work permit or find me work?

No, we are a law firm which provides support in UK Immigration, Nationality and EU Free Movement Rights. However we have a subsidiary company which is jobslibrary.co.uk whereby you can look for work, apply and discuss with potential employers. We cannot influence any decisions and finding work is not something our team deals with.

How we deliver service

1) You contact us through e-mail or phone.

2) We take some basic information, we ask some relevant questions to understand the type of query and what type of support is required.

3) Your case then gets passed to a case worker.

4) Case Worker would contact you to set up an initial meeting.

5) You attend a consultation, an action plan is drawn up and we find out whether ICS Legal can support your case. A report would be sent where there is a requirement to outline what was discussed and what to do next.

6) You authorise us to be your legal representative by signing our customer care letter.

7) We will then start to request documents and information about your case this will build up your case pack.

8) We will then write our legal report and use Home Office caseworker’s documents to ensure everything has been checked and all requirement have been met.

9) Where possible we will go through every aspect of your case before case submission.

10) We will continue to update you throughout the case life cycle .

Get our updates

Help & Support | Sponsor Licence | Skilled Work Permits | ICS Legal | UKVI

ICS Legal is a registered trademark and is listed under the Home Office website. We have demonstrated a good understanding of the sponsorship arrangements and we have given evidence about the type of checks and services that we will do when working with clients. We can provide you with a document that assesses your readiness to make a sponsorship application.

To get an assessment or to discuss the sponsor licence programme, please call us today on 0207 237 3388. You can also e-mail us your enquiry to info@icslegal.com and one of our support colleague will be in contact with you.

Companies must complete an online licence application and provide supporting documentation to meet the necessary evidentiary requirements. This must be supplied within five days of the initial application. Failure to submit all required documents will result in an application being delayed or rejected and further costs being incurred.

Following the receipt of these documents, the company may then be subject to a compliance visit from UK Visas and Immigration, who will assess whether or not to grant the licence.

Companies will also be required to comply with the illegal working requirements which states that all non-EU employees are required to provide documentation that proves their right to work BEFORE being employed by a UK company and copies of this information must also be retained by the employer.

What we can do to help

ICS Legal can provide clients with a complete employer sponsorship licence application package which includes:

Assisting with initial considerations as to the most appropriate type of sponsorship application and suitable key personnel.
Drafting your online sponsor licence application.
Helping you to collate the appropriate supporting documentation that you must submit.
Auditing your HR systems and procedures to get them in order before the UKVI visit.
Briefing or training staff on their duties and responsibilities.
Advising on the UKVI ‘genuineness’ test and assessing whether a prospective employee satisfies the points criteria before the sponsor issues a certificate of sponsorship.
Advising on the alternatives available to you if you decide not to make a sponsor licence application.

With our team of UK Immigration Lawyers, who are well-versed in all the document and evidentiary requirements that can be vital to a prompt and stress-free sponsor application.

You can then choose whether to submit this document to the Home Office in support of your sponsorship application - if you do so, one of the benefits you may take advantage of is the fact that Home Office will not normally duplicate the checks that Home Office expect us to have already made. Home Office would therefore expect to make decisions on applications supported by one of these documents well within the standard six-week timescale for processing an application. However, Home Office reserve the right to carry out checks and to visit any prospective sponsor as part of the sponsorship application and management process at any time.

Immigration law advice for businesses and individuals

Our immigration team (recognised as one of the leading teams in London and the UK) is one of relatively few immigration law firms in London that is legal directory rated and that specialises in advising businesses, individuals and educational establishments on all aspects of UK immigration law.

Why us?

Success rate is at 100% of sponsor licence applications that are submitted to the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and its predecessor, the UK Border Agency, by our UK Immigration Lawyers have been approved. This gives our clients added confidence and trust in achieving their desired results.

Trust: ICS Legal's long history is testament to the enduring quality of the firm's advice, which has been trusted by many generations of clients.
Highly rated: We are one of relatively few legal directory rated immigration law teams in London and the UK. We have been praised for our general advisory work and for specialisms within the team, for instance our work in relation to contentious immigration matters and for high-net-worth individuals.
Niche expertise: We often advise on the most complex and niche areas of immigration law, and have achieved many successes for our clients in circumstances where it might have seemed that there were no prospects of success.
Personal: We understand that immigration is intensely personal and we reflect this in our advice and approach.
Whilst many of our individual clients are advised by one team member, where needed we have the scale and resources to help our clients achieve their desired results in even the largest and most challenging of cases.
Breadth: Unlike many immigration teams, we advise on all areas of UK immigration law and as a full-service firm, we do not only advise on immigration law. We can advise on complex multi-practice area cases that are beyond the scope of specialist or 'boutique' teams that only advise on immigration law.
Flexibility: We have the flexibility to be able to advise a very wide range of clients and take pride in this. Our clients have ranged from multi-billion pound household name global companies, to high-net-worth individuals to individuals of relatively modest financial means.
Speed and insight: Our insightful approach means that we are adept at 'speeding up' UKVI processing times for our clients. For instance, we have regularly had applications, which normally take between 8 - 18 weeks to process, approved within just a few days.
Commercial: We fully appreciate our corporate clients' commercial aims and pressures and take them into account when advising. We always do our utmost to turn potential problems into solutions.
High stakes: Because of our expertise, approach and ability to deal with the most complex and high value immigration cases, we are often approached to assist clients in very high stakes scenarios. For instance, where a client's sponsor licence has been revoked or where a sponsor licence is needed within a very short timeframe.
Cost-effective: Our rates are more competitive than many of our peers and we maintain them at a level that is more accessible for individual clients, including individual clients of relatively modest means.

Focused and globally connected: Our immigration team only advises on UK immigration law - this is our only focus. When our clients need advice in another jurisdiction, we can access our global network of trusted law firms.

Immigration litigation unit: Unlike many of our peers, one of our specialisms is challenging negative UKVI/Home Office decisions for businesses, individuals and educational institutions. ICS Legal hold a JRCM licence, so we can conduct judicial review applications where required.

We have successfully challenged numerous UKVI/Home Office decisions and have a very high success rate in litigious matters. Very few immigration firms in the UK have our level of legal directory noted expertise in litigious/contentious immigration matters, including in extremely high stakes immigration related litigation.

Immigration law advice for employers

Our team of UK Immigration Lawyers specialise in advising businesses in all industry sectors on all immigration related issues, ranging from London based, to national and multi-billion pound multinationals to SMEs and higher education institutions.

These include:

Tier 2 - Intra Company Transfer (ICT) visa applications.
Tier 2 - 'General' visa applications and conducting a Resident Labour Market Test.
Tier 4 - Passing the annual Basic Compliance Assessment.
Tier 2, 4 and 5 - Licensing as a sponsor with UKVI and ongoing compliance with the sponsor regime.
Tier 2, 4 and 5 - Challenging unlawful UKVI decisions, e.g. by judicial review or appeal.
Tier 2, 4 and 5 - Compliance audits and manuals and ongoing compliance with UK immigration laws and sponsorship duties.
Standard visitor visas (formerly called business visitor visas).
Training for businesses and educational institutions. ICS Legal provides in house training. Please click here to read more information.
Visas for dependants and overseas entry clearance applications.
Switching between relevant immigration categories.
Immigration appeals and visa extension applications.
Immigration aspects of mergers and acquisitions.

Examples of work carried out for our employer clients include:

Obtaining an A-rated sponsor licence, within a few days of applying, for a leading multinational investment management firm and then an Intra-Company Transfer visa for its CEO.
Carrying out an immigration compliance audit for a leading multinational media company.
Quickly obtaining a sponsor licence for a multinational sports and media agency and then obtained an Intra-Company Transfer visa for a key member of staff.
Stopping enforcement action to remove the sponsor licence of a leading education provider, without needing to issue judicial review proceedings. ICS Legal will submit the pre-action protocol letter and ask the Home Office Business Team to reconsider its position. 9 out of 10, we get a positive response.
Obtaining an A-rated sponsor licence, within a few days of applying, for a leading multinational software company and then an Intra-Company Transfer visa for a key member of staff.
Providing a range of immigration advice to a leading aviation company.
Putting in place a structure that allowed a multinational automotive business' CEO to safely use the visitor visa category pending receipt of a sponsorship based visa.
Providing a range of immigration advice to a global business in the precious metals sector.
Advising on immigration aspects of large corporate transactions.

Knowledge Center

We regularly provide up to date information, click here to read our knowledge base.