Choosing an immigration lawyer: six questions worth asking

The choice of adviser genuinely affects the outcome in immigration cases. The difficulty is that every firm’s website says roughly the same thing, so here are six questions that actually distinguish between them.

1. Is immigration law what they do, or one of many things?

Generalist firms cover broad ground. Immigration law does not reward that: the rules, the orders and the Board’s practice all move constantly. Ask the direct question, how many reunification cases or appeals has the firm run in the past twelve months?

2. What is the actual record?

Reviews tell you something about the experience of working with a firm. For outcomes, ask outright what proportion of appeals succeed. Anyone who works in this area regularly can answer with examples.

3. Do they know the system from the inside?

There is a difference between knowing what the rules say and knowing how they are applied. Has anyone at the firm worked at the Immigration Service or SIRI? That experience changes how a case gets built.

4. Is the price fixed before the work starts?

A fixed fee tells you what the case costs. An hourly rate tells you what an hour costs. With a firm worth using:

• the first assessment happens before you commit to anything
• a fixed or capped fee is agreed in writing
• and what is and is not included is stated plainly.

5. Will you be able to reach them?

These cases run 6 to 24 months. Over that period you will have questions. Ask about:

• how quickly emails and calls are answered
• whether you keep the same contact throughout or get handed around
• whether phone and video meetings are available.

6. Will they tell you no?

The most useful thing an adviser can say is sometimes that the case is not winnable. Be wary of anyone who is confident about every matter that walks through the door, we turn down cases we do not believe in, because taking them wastes your money as well as our time.

When to make the call

• Before the first application goes in, where the errors are cheapest to fix.
• Immediately after a refusal, while the appeal window is still open.
• When a notification arrives, or revocation is raised.
• In anything involving EU elements, dispensation or unusual circumstances.

Put your case in front of us and you will have an honest read on it within a working day.