Immigration applications

Our immigration team has over 30 years’ experience in advising and assisting private clients and companies in all areas of UK immigration law.

Any member of the Immigration team may work on your matter under the supervision of Partner, Michael Shaw.

Our fees

Our fees for advising you and representing you on the most common UK immigration applications are likely to fall within the ranges (excluding VAT) set out below.

Innovator	£15,000 to £50,000
Global Talent	10,000 to £25,000
Skilled Worker and Global Business Mobility	£2,000 to £5,000
Student Visa and Child Student Visa	£2,500 to £5,000
Government Authorised Exchange	£2,500 to £5,000
Youth Mobility Scheme	£2,000 to £5,000
UK Ancestry	£2,000 to £7,000
Partner of a person present & settled in UK	£6,000 to £12,000
Visitor	£2,000 to £5,000
Overseas Domestic worker	£6,000 to £11,000
EU Settlement Scheme Family Permit	£3,000 to £7,000
EU Settlement Scheme	£3,000 to £7,000
Indefinite leave to remain	£4,000 to £12,000
Naturalisation as a British citizen	£5,000 to £9,000
Registration as a British citizen	£4,000 to £9,000
UK Passport	£2,500 to £9,000

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs we incur on your behalf such as:

• Home Office application fees;
• priority processing fees;
  counsel’s fees; and
• third party fees, such as translation costs and overseas lawyers’ fees.

We estimate these at the outset and they will appear on our invoice to you.

Other applications

If the application you wish to submit is not set out above, please contact us and we will be pleased to provide a fee quote and scope of work for the relevant application.

Our policy is to charge (wherever possible) on a fixed fee basis. However, the fees quoted above are for assisting with straightforward applications. Where a matter is complex (for example, if you have previously been refused a visa for the UK or another country or you have a criminal record) or involves providing a significant amount of strategic advice, we may charge on a time-spent basis, subject to an estimate.

Factors which can make an application more complex and involve our charging fees either at the higher end of the above stated ranges or which exceed them, include:

• the time taken to assist with the matter;
• the urgency of the matter;
• the level of correspondence involved;
• the amount and quality of supporting documentation;
• the likely level of engagement with the Home Office; and
• the need to engage and liaise with third parties.

Multiple applications

The fees quoted above are for assisting with single applications by a principal applicant. They do not include the costs of assisting with applications for dependant family members, even if submitted simultaneously.

If you would like assistance with submitting a number of applications, for example an application for indefinite leave to remain followed by an application to naturalise as a British citizen, or applications involving dependant family members, please contact us and we will be pleased to provide a fee quote and scope of work for the relevant applications.

Applications by corporates

The fees set out above only cover assisting with applications submitted by individuals. We are also specialists in assisting companies with submitting applications, such as:

• representative of an overseas business applications;
• Skilled Worker sponsor licence applications; and
• reviewing and drafting policies to ensure companies comply with their Skilled Worker sponsor licence duties and responsibilities and the law in relation to the prevention of illegal working.

Outbound advisory

We are able to provide advice and assistance with outbound immigration applications for other countries, working on a case by case basis with third party advisers who specialise in the relevant jurisdiction. We will provide a proposed scope of service and a fixed fee on instruction.

Scope

Please note that we will provide a scope of work tailored to your individual circumstances once we have been provided with full details of your situation. Set out below is our typical scope of work and stages for assisting with a UK immigration application.

• Obtaining information in relation to your particular circumstances and advising on the UK immigration options available.
• Providing detailed advice on the documentation required and the procedure for submitting the relevant application.
• Providing advice on the timelines and likely outcome.
• Meetings, where required.
• Providing draft suggested wording for any documents required in support of the application.
• Drafting the relevant application form.
• Providing a covering letter in support of the application.
• Preparing the bundle of documents which need to be submitted in support of the application.
• Booking an appointment for submission of the application and/or submitting the application directly to the Home Office.
• Answering any routine queries that the Home Office may have in relation to the application.
• Once the application has been approved, reviewing the approval documentation, which may include a passport endorsement and/or a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) to ensure that it has been validly issued.
• Providing advice on the next steps.

The above scope does not include assisting with challenging a refusal decision if the application is not approved. If you wish to challenge a decision to refuse your application, we would provide a separate fee quote for this work.

Application timings

Experience suggests that, on average, applications take approximately 4-6 weeks to prepare.

Typical Home Office processing times from the date of submission of a straightforward application are as follows:

Overseas

• Between 1 and 15 working days to process applications for temporary immigration permission submitted overseas, depending on the complexity of the application and whether the application is submitted using one of the priority services.
• Between 30 and 120 working days to process applications for settlement submitted overseas, depending on the complexity of the application and whether the application is submitted using one of the priority services.

In-country

• Between 1 and 60 working days to process applications submitted in the UK, depending on the complexity of the application and whether the application is submitted using one of the priority services.