Help and Support from UK Immigration Lawyers | Home Office Approved

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:

1. Assisting with initial considerations as to the most appropriate type of sponsorship application and suitable key personnel.

2. Drafting your online sponsor licence application.

3. Helping you to collate the appropriate supporting documentation that you must submit.

4. Auditing your HR systems and procedures to get them in order before the UKVI visit.

5. Briefing or training staff on their duties and responsibilities.

6. Advising on the UKVI ‘genuineness’ test and assessing whether a prospective employee satisfies the points criteria before the sponsor issues a certificate of sponsorship.

7. 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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Personal: We understand that immigration is intensely personal and we reflect this in our advice and approach.

5. 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.

6. 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. 

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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: 

1. Tier 2 - Intra Company Transfer (ICT) visa applications.

2. Tier 2 - 'General' visa applications and conducting a Resident Labour Market Test.

3. Tier 4 - Passing the annual Basic Compliance Assessment.

4. Tier 2, 4 and 5 - Licensing as a sponsor with UKVI and ongoing compliance with the sponsor regime.

5. Tier 2, 4 and 5 - Challenging unlawful UKVI decisions, e.g. by judicial review or appeal.

6. Tier 2, 4 and 5 - Compliance audits and manuals and ongoing compliance with UK immigration laws and sponsorship duties.

7. Standard visitor visas (formerly called business visitor visas). 

8. Training for businesses and educational institutions. ICS Legal provides in house training. Please click here to read more information. 

9. Visas for dependants and overseas entry clearance applications. 

10. Switching between relevant immigration categories.

11. Immigration appeals and visa extension applications.

12. Immigration aspects of mergers and acquisitions.

Examples of work carried out for our employer clients include:

1. 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.

2. Carrying out an immigration compliance audit for a leading multinational media company.

3. 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.

4. 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. 

5. 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.

6. Providing a range of immigration advice to a leading aviation company.

7. 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.

8. Providing a range of immigration advice to a global business in the precious metals sector.

9. Advising on immigration aspects of large corporate transactions.

Knowledge Center

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