General

Who is regulated to provide immigration advice?

By Amer Zaman

on April 21, 2025

Read Time: 7 Minutes

There is a broad range of circumstances in which individuals in the UK may wish to seek out advice on matters of immigration and/or asylum. Indeed, such is the complex and multilayered nature of the country’s immigration system, it may be difficult for you to determine what steps you need to take. You might even be unsure who is legally permitted to give you advice.

Individuals and organisations that provide immigration advice in the UK need to adhere to the country’s relevant legislation and regulations.

In this article, then, we will explore in greater depth what the requirements are, along with the other aspects that both advisers and prospective clients ought to know.

Only certain people are permitted to give immigration advice in the UK

People in the following categories are legally allowed to provide immigration advice in the UK:

Immigration advisers who are registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) or who are exempt from registration.
Solicitors who are registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (England and Wales), the Law Society of Scotland, or the Law Society of Northern Ireland.
Barristers who are regulated by the Bar Standards Board (England and Wales), the Faculty of Advocates (Scotland), or the Bar Council of Northern Ireland.

Here at Cranbrook Legal, for example, we are proud to be a regulated firm of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), which authorises us for all legal services.

The SRA regulates most law firms in England and Wales, it and can take action against any regulated solicitors failing to adhere to its rules. So, when you see that a particular legal firm is subject to regulation by the SRA, you can have the utmost confidence that its services will meet the body’s high standards. Furthermore, you will be protected if this isn’t the case.

If you choose to receive immigration advice from an adviser who is registered with the OISC, you should bear in mind they will only be permitted to give you advice at the level they are registered at. For instance, they will need to be registered at level three in order to represent you in an immigration appeal at an Immigration Tribunal.

What is the difference between OISC and SRA?

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are both UK bodies that help protect members of the public who seek legal advice.

Otherwise, there are noticeable differences between the OISC and the SRA:

The OISC licenses and regulates people in the UK who wish to provide immigration advice to the public (but not legal professionals such as solicitors and barristers, who are already subject to regulation by their own professional body).
The SRA regulates all solicitors and most law firms in England and Wales.

In summary, the OISC regulates immigration advisers, including those who are not solicitors. The SRA, meanwhile, regulates solicitors, including those who work in SRA-regulated firms.

An immigration adviser may move from being subject to one body’s regulation, to being subject to the other body’s regulation. For example, a solicitor working in an SRA-regulated firm is exempt from OISC regulation, but if the same solicitor does legal work elsewhere, they will need to be OISC-authorised.

How do these regulators of immigration advisers protect the public?

When you turn to an immigration adviser, you will want to be sure of being protected if something goes wrong. This is one of the strongest reasons to choose an immigration adviser that is regulated in the UK.

So, here is how the two aforementioned regulators protect the public:

The OISC enforces the regulatory regime through the investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution of individuals who provide immigration advice illegally.
The SRA can take a range of enforcement actions against solicitors that violate its rules. It can get a client’s documents and money back if, for instance, a law firm suddenly shuts down. The SRA can prosecute solicitors and firms at the independent Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT). It can issue fines, suspend, and strike off solicitors. In addition, it can set limits on what solicitors and firms are permitted to do.

Is using an unregulated immigration adviser worth the risk?

Given our own status at Cranbrook Legal as an SRA-regulated immigration law firm, you might expect us to give this answer, but it is a critically important one, nonetheless: no, turning to an unregulated immigration adviser is not worth the risk.

Here are the reasons why:

Unreliable and potentially inaccurate advice

You may be initially drawn to an unregulated immigration adviser due to their services being offered well below the market rate charged by regulated immigration advisers.

Unfortunately for the often-vulnerable individuals who are attracted by such low fees, the old maxim, “you get what you pay for”, applies particularly strongly to immigration advice. Indeed, an unregulated adviser may have little or no knowledge and experience of immigration law.

The sad reality is that you could be easily paying for worthless advice if you place your trust in an unregulated immigration adviser. This could cost you much more money in the long run – for example, because of the lost earning potential arising from a failed application, and/or the need to prepare a new visa application.

A lack of accountability

If you do proceed to use an unregulated immigration adviser, and they commit an action that contravenes the requirements of the relevant regulatory body such as the SRA or the OISC, it will not be possible for that body to hold them to account.

This means the regulator will not be able to get back the money you have already paid to the adviser. Nor will they be able to retrieve your documents for you if the unregulated adviser suddenly goes out of business.

It is illegal to provide unregulated immigration advice

If someone provides you with immigration advice or services in the UK, and their organisation is not regulated by the OISC or it is not otherwise covered by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, they will be committing a criminal offence.

Members of certain professional bodies are entitled to provide immigration advice without the need for OISC registration.

These bodies include the General Council of the Bar; the Law Society of England and Wales; the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives; the Faculty of Advocates; the Law Society of Scotland; the General Council of the Bar of Northern Ireland; and the Law Society of Northern Ireland.

The stakes are too high for you to risk it

A given individual’s immigration status is far from a “minor” issue, so choosing an immigration adviser isn’t a “minor” decision. For many people, the consequences of placing their trust in an unqualified immigration adviser could be profoundly life-changing, and perhaps even the difference between life and death. We are sure you will not wish for yourself, or a loved one, to be denied a visa, deported from the UK, and/or even banned for years from submitting a UK immigration application, all because you placed your trust in the wrong person. The stakes are simply too high.

How to get immigration advice in the UK

There are a number of courses of action you can take to find a regulated immigration adviser in the UK.

One option is to use the Adviser Finder of the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). To do this, take the following steps:

Navigate to the OISC Adviser Finder on the GOV.UK website.
Use this feature to search by location and/or type of advice. You can enter a postcode, for example, and request to see which unregulated advisers are available within a certain distance of your location.
If a given adviser is registered with the OISC, you can expect to see such information as the organisation they are a part of, and the organisation’s authorisation level, website, and contact details.

Alternatively, if you already have a particular adviser or organisation in mind, and you wish to check whether the OISC regulates them, you can search for them on the OISC Register:

Navigate to the OISC Adviser Register on the GOV.UK website.
Use this feature to search by organisation and/or adviser. The fields that you can fill in here include the organisation name, adviser name, and organisation ID.
If the adviser or organisation is registered with the OISC, you can expect to see the given organisation’s authorisation level, website, and contact details.

As we mentioned earlier, it is the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that regulates all solicitors and most law firms in England and Wales, rather than the OISC.

So, if you have a particular solicitor or law firm in mind that you are considering seeking immigration advice from, you can look them up in the regulator’s Solicitor Register online. You will simply need to type in their name or SRA number.

Place your trust in a reputable, SRA-regulated UK immigration law firm

For advice and assistance in relation to a broad range of UK immigration requirements and circumstances, there is no need to look further than our award-winning specialists in central London. Cranbrook Legal is proudly regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which should give you the very greatest peace of mind when you choose us. To learn more, please fill in our online contact form to request your free consultation, or call us on 0208 215 0053.