Using a solicitor, or applying yourself
Paid help with a settlement application is regulated, and who may give it is set by law. This guide explains what the rules are, what an adviser may and may not do, how to check one is registered, and why nobody publishes a price.
- Section
- ILR & Settlement
- Reading time
- 9 min
- Last checked
- 24 February 2026
- Source
- The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
- Rowan does not
- Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.
In short
- No settlement application requires a solicitor; you apply online yourself.
- Paid immigration advice is regulated: advisers must be registered with the Immigration Advice Authority or belong to an approved professional body.
- No public body publishes or caps the fees, so a written quote is the only figure.
- GOV.UK warns you cannot get your money back from an unregulated adviser.
- Only a regulated adviser can say what a particular case needs. Rowan cannot.
No settlement application requires a solicitor: GOV.UK publishes the requirements and the applicant makes the application online. Paid immigration advice is regulated, and giving it in the course of a business without being registered or exempt is a criminal offence under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Nobody publishes a price for it — not the government, not the Solicitors Regulation Authority, not the Immigration Advice Authority — so a written quote is the only real figure. Rowan gives information, not advice, and cannot say whether a particular case needs help.
Nothing Requires You to Use One
A settlement application is made online by the applicant. GOV.UK publishes the requirements for every route, the fee, the documents and the decision time, and nowhere asks for a representative. The Home Office charges the same £3,226 either way.
That is a fact about the process, not a suggestion about what you should do. Whether paid help would be useful in a particular set of circumstances is a question about that person's case. Rowan does not answer it: assessing an individual's immigration position is regulated advice, and Rowan is not a regulated adviser. What follows is what the rules say about who may give that advice and what they may do.
Who May Give Immigration Advice for Money
Giving immigration advice or services in the course of a business is regulated by Part 5 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Doing it while unqualified is a criminal offence under section 91 of that Act.
GOV.UK puts the rule simply: all immigration advisers must be registered with the Immigration Advice Authority or be a member of an approved professional body. Solicitors and barristers are in the second group, regulated through their own bodies. The Immigration Advice Authority took over from the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner on 16 January 2025.
GOV.UK also says what advisers do and do not do: they "can help you with most things to do with immigration, including helping you to fill in the right forms and representing you at a tribunal", and they "do not make immigration decisions". No adviser, at any price, decides an application.
What Nobody Publishes
Not the government, not the Solicitors Regulation Authority, not the Immigration Advice Authority. There is no published range, no cap and no scale. Any figure you see quoted as typical is somebody's estimate, and Rowan does not add another one. The only reliable number is a written quote from the firm you are considering, for the work you actually want done.
Our guide to what advisers charge covers what a quote should set out, the difference between a fixed fee and an hourly rate, and where free advice exists.
What a Regulated Adviser Can Do That Rowan Cannot
These are the things a regulated adviser is permitted to do that a free reference site is not:
- Look at your own circumstances and tell you where you stand
- Say which route fits, when more than one might
- Complete or submit the application on your behalf
- Write representations to the Home Office for you
- Answer questions the Home Office asks about your case
- Represent you at a tribunal
Rowan does none of those, by design. It sets out the published rules, the fees and the dates, and links to the GOV.UK page each one came from. What an adviser adds is judgment about a particular person, which is exactly the thing the 1999 Act regulates.
Checking an Adviser
- Check the registration. GOV.UK's find an immigration adviser service points at the Immigration Advice Authority's adviser finder. A solicitor is checked through their own regulator instead: the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England and Wales, the Law Society of Scotland, or the Law Society of Northern Ireland.
- Read the banned list. GOV.UK publishes a list of advisers who have been banned or suspended.
- Get the fee in writing. Whether it is fixed or hourly, and what falls outside it.
GOV.UK's warning about unregulated advisers is blunt: you cannot get your money back if an adviser is not regulated. See our guide to immigration scams.
What the Application Itself Costs
- Home Office fee: £3,226 for each person applying, the same whether or not you use an adviser. See our cost breakdown.
- Fingerprints and photo: no fee.
- Healthcare surcharge: none. It is not charged on a settlement application, and there is no refund of surcharge already paid.
- Faster decision, if you want one: £500 for the priority service, £1,000 for super priority, per person.
- Adviser fee: whatever the adviser quotes in writing. No public body publishes or caps it.
Where the Published Rules Are
The published requirements, in Rowan's own pages:
- settlement documents checklist for what GOV.UK asks for
- settlement requirements guide for what each route asks
- guide to the settlement forms for which one a route uses
- Life in the UK test guide for preparing for the test
The application itself starts at GOV.UK's settlement pages.
Questions and answers
How much does an immigration solicitor charge for ILR?
No public body publishes immigration solicitor fees. They are not set or capped by the government, the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Immigration Advice Authority: each firm sets its own, and they differ by the work involved and by where the firm is. The only reliable figure is a written quote for the work you want done. Whatever it is, it sits on top of the Home Office fee of £3,226 for each person applying.
Is an immigration solicitor necessary for settlement?
No settlement application requires one. GOV.UK publishes the requirements and the application is made online by the applicant. Whether paid help would be useful in a particular case is a question about that case, and only a regulated adviser can answer it. Rowan cannot, and does not try to.
How do I find a good immigration solicitor?
GOV.UK says all immigration advisers must be registered with the Immigration Advice Authority or be a member of an approved professional body. Solicitors and barristers fall in the second group and are regulated through their own bodies; other advisers register with the Immigration Advice Authority, which replaced the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner on 16 January 2025. You can check a registration on the Immigration Advice Authority's adviser finder, and GOV.UK also publishes a list of banned or suspended advisers.
Can I use an immigration adviser instead of a solicitor?
Yes. GOV.UK says immigration advisers can help with most things to do with immigration, including helping you fill in the right forms and representing you at a tribunal, and that they do not make immigration decisions. What matters is that they are registered, because GOV.UK also warns that you cannot get your money back if an adviser is not regulated.
This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.