Doing It Yourself or Using a Regulated Adviser

What This Guide Does Not Do

It does not tell you whether to hire someone. Working out whether a particular application needs professional help means assessing your circumstances against the rules, and that is immigration advice — something only a regulated person may give, under sections 84 to 91 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Rowan is not a regulated adviser, so it sets out the published facts and leaves the decision where it belongs.

Applying Without an Adviser

The Home Office does not require legal representation for any application. Every route has its requirements published on GOV.UK, and the underlying law is in the Immigration Rules, which are published in full. Applications are made online, in the applicant's own name, and the forms ask for the same evidence whether or not an adviser prepared them.

The routes where the published requirements are most mechanical — a set fee, a set document list, a threshold you either meet or do not — include visitor visas, student visas where the institution issues the confirmation of acceptance for studies, extensions on a route you are already on, and naturalisation once settlement is already held.

What Makes an Application More Involved

These are not signals that you must pay someone. They are the situations where the published rules stop being a checklist and start requiring a judgement about facts — which is the kind of question a regulated adviser exists to answer.

• A previous refusal. A refusal is decided against a stated ground, and a further application is read against the same history. Which ground was used, and whether it carries a right of appeal, comes from the decision letter.
• An appeal. Appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) run on a deadline stated in your decision letter and on tribunal procedure rules rather than on Home Office guidance.
• A criminal record. The good character thresholds for citizenship changed on 31 July 2023, and the current ones turn on sentence length rather than on how long ago the sentence was. See our good character guide.
• A period of overstaying. The good character guidance treats a failure to comply with immigration requirements in the 10 years before the decision as a normal reason to refuse citizenship, and treats illegal entry as a reason regardless of how long ago it was.
• A human rights claim. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, on family and private life, is applied to the facts of each case rather than to a threshold.
• Income evidence that is not a simple salary. The family income requirement is £29,000, but the evidence rules differ sharply between employment, self-employment, savings and combinations of them.
• Sponsor licence compliance. A sponsor licence carries continuing duties on the employer, with reporting deadlines measured in days.

Who May Be Paid to Advise

GOV.UK states the rule directly: “All immigration advisers must be registered with IAA or be a member of an approved professional body.” The approved professional bodies it names are the Law Society, the Law Society of Scotland, the Law Society of Northern Ireland, the Bar Council, the Faculty of Advocates and the Bar of Northern Ireland.

The Immigration Advice Authority replaced the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner on 16 January 2025. Anything written before that date uses the old name for the same regulator. It describes itself as protecting “seekers of immigration advice through regulation, enforcement and promoting best practice”, and it publishes an adviser register.

To check someone before you pay:

1. For an immigration adviser, use the GOV.UK find an immigration adviser service, which searches the Immigration Advice Authority register. Registration is at levels and in categories, and an adviser may work only within the ones they hold.
2. For a solicitor, search the Solicitors Regulation Authority register.

GOV.UK is blunt about what happens if you skip this step: “You cannot get your money back if an adviser is not regulated.”

What Advice Costs

Nobody publishes it. Immigration advice fees are not set by the government and not capped by either regulator: each firm and adviser sets its own, and the amount depends on the scope of the work rather than on the name of the visa. Ranges quoted online have no source behind them, which is why this page does not carry any. Our guide to what immigration advice costs covers what to ask a firm for instead.

The Home Office fees, by contrast, are published in full. The main ones are £3,226 for settlement, £1,839 for naturalisation (£1,709 to apply plus a £130 ceremony fee), £558 for a student visa, and £2,064 outside the UK or £1,407 inside for a family visa as a partner, parent or child. On top of most of those sits the healthcare surcharge, at £1,035 a year or £776 for students, their dependants, Youth Mobility applicants and under-18s. See our visa fees guide.

Warning Signs

• A promised outcome. The decision is the Home Office's. Nobody can sell you a grant.
• Not on either register. Providing immigration advice or services in the United Kingdom while unqualified is a criminal offence under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
• Pressure to pay before you have read the quote.
• A fee with no written scope, so you cannot tell what happens if the Home Office asks for more.
• Any suggestion of putting something untrue on the form. The good character guidance treats deception as a normal reason to refuse, and says any further citizenship application will normally be refused for the next 10 years — counted from when the deception is discovered or admitted, not from when it happened.

Between the Two

It is not a binary. Firms commonly sell narrower pieces of work than full representation:

• A one-off consultation, to get an answer on a specific question and then prepare the application yourself.
• A document review of an application you have prepared, before you submit it.
• Advice on one element of an otherwise straightforward case.

Each of these is a defined scope, which makes it easier to get a written price for and easier to compare between firms.

Free and Low-Cost Advice

• Charities and not-for-profit advice services. Some are registered with the Immigration Advice Authority and give advice free. They appear on the same register, so they can be checked the same way.
• Legal aid. In England and Wales it covers a narrow set of immigration matters, mainly asylum, detention and certain cases involving domestic abuse and trafficking. Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own schemes on different rules.

Sources Worth Reading Directly

• GOV.UK. The official guidance is the primary source for every route's requirements.
• The Immigration Rules. The full text is published, along with each statement of changes that amends it.
• Home Office caseworker guidance. Published for most requirements, and often more specific than the public-facing pages.
• Forums and community groups. Useful for the practical texture of a process. Anyone giving individual advice there for a fee, without being registered, is committing an offence.

Related guides:

• What immigration advice costs
• Visa refused: what to do next
• Hidden costs of immigration
• UK visa fees: complete guide
• How to contact the Home Office

Questions and answers