Immigration services - what your firm needs to do

5 January 2023

Getting authorised

If you are a solicitor, REL or RFL and want to work in the immigration advice and services field, you can only do this from regulated organisations which are:

• organisations regulated by us, the Bar Standards Board or CILEx Regulation
• non-commercial advice services, such as law centres, when they are regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC).

You can find out more about authorising your own firm from our guidance. 

The immigration provisions in our Authorisation of Individuals Regulations makes clear that you may provide immigration advice and services to the public from other organisations that are regulated by the OISC.

To do so you must be qualified under the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999 (in addition to your authorisation from us to practise as a solicitor, REL or RFL), which can be achieved by gaining authorisation from the OISC to work within an OISC registered organisation.  

Find out more by reading the OISC's guidance.

If your firm is a multi-disciplinary practice we have guidance on our expectations to make sure you are licensed properly.

Price information

As well proper authorisation, firms that we regulate need to provide clear information on price and service information, as laid out in our transparency rules.

You can find out more in our guidance on transparency.