How we can help
Immigration Together was established with families in mind. To help partners facing separation from each other to stay together. To ensure children are able to grow up with both mum and dad around. To reunite elderly parents with their adult children who want to be there to care for them. Family means that no one gets left behind or forgotten. That is why we are here to help you keep your family together.
Whether you just need some advice on how UK immigration law affects you and your loved ones, want help with your application to join or remain with your partner, child or parent or need to appeal or apply for judicial review to challenge a Home Office decision, we can connect you with a specialist immigration barrister who will tailor the services they provide to you to meet the needs of your family.
We know that before you spend money to get advice or representation from a lawyer, you want to be sure that there is something a lawyer can do to help you or that you need to involve a lawyer at all. That’s why you can call or email us at anytime to have an informal chat about your case with a barrister who specialises in immigration law.
Families come in different shapes and sizes and the immigration problems each family will face will vary. But in every case, the starting point should be the same: get clear and honest advice from a specialist immigration lawyer at the start of your case. It is only in this way that you will know the best way forward for you and your family.
Immigration Together can help you access advice in a number of ways. The first step is to call us for an informal chat. You will get to speak to a barrister who will be able to discuss your case with you for free. The barrister won’t be able to advise you in this chat but can guide you on your next steps. If he or she thinks a barrister can help you, you will be offered a 1-hour consultation with a barrister (which will either take place remotely or in their Chambers) where the barrister can spend some time discussing your case with you, looks at your documents and give you detailed advice about your case. In particularly complex cases, you can even instruct a barrister to give you a written opinion clearly setting out all of your options. If the barrister advises you to make an application, appeal or seek administrative or judicial review, you can then instruct a barrister to help you with that work if you wish.
There are many reasons why getting help from an immigration barrister when making your or your family’s application to enter or remain in the UK is a good idea. UK immigration law is constantly changing. The rules people have to meet when applying to visit, stay and settle with family are complex. The Home Office often refuses applications that should succeed because one or two required documents are not submitted. The list could go on.
The barristers we connect you with are specialists who stay on top of the law as it evolves. They can help you complete your application, compile the evidence the Home Office requires to ensure that your application is successful and help you submit your application. They can also explain to the Home Office in a covering letter that accompanies your application how you and your family meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules, referring to the evidence you have submitted, to make sure that the decision-maker is in no doubt about why your application should succeed. Once a positive decision is received, they can help you plan for the future by explaining the conditions attached to your leave and when you can apply for further or indefinite leave to remain.
It is a sad fact of the UK immigration system that is very expensive. Home Office application fees go up, year by year, and legal advice and representation in immigration cases does not come cheap. Whilst our barristers always try to charge reasonable fees for assisting with applications and representing in appeals and judicial reviews, we know that there will be some individuals who will not be able to meet these fees.
It is inevitable that the Home Office will sometimes refuse applications. Frequently, these refusal decisions are wrong.
Our barristers specialise in overturning Home Office decisions on appeal. They appear in immigration tribunals and the higher courts up and down the UK on a daily basis, representing individuals and families in their cases. It is their job to show judges how the Home Office has made mistakes and to secure successful outcomes for their clients and – dare we say it – they are very, very good at that job. Our barristers can help you understand why the Home Office refused your application, prepare your bundle of evidence and draft legal submissions showing why the Home Office decision was wrong and represent you in court to overturn the Home Office decision. They can also help you appeal to the higher courts like the Upper Tribunal and Court of Appeal if necessary.
Not all decisions taken by the Home Office can be appealed. Sometimes your only remedy against a Home Office decision is judicial review. This is not an appeal and does not allow a court to consider whether the Home Office made the right or wrong decision but instead gives judges the power to find that the government’s decisions were unlawful and force it to make the decision again properly.
If you want to seek judicial review of a Home Office decision, you have to issue a claim in either the Administrative Division of the High Court or in the Upper Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber). The rules and procedures to be followed and law surrounding the grounds that can be run in a claim are complex. Our immigration barristers specialise in immigration judicial review challenges. They can help you by advising you on whether your claim has merit, draft the legal documents you need to submit with your claim, guide you on how to issue your claim and represent you at your court hearings.