One Stop Shop for your UK Immigration Needs

16 Oct 2016

Our team, Dee Popat (Head of Family) and Rohan Shinde (Paralegal) have a vast wealth of experience dealing with various UK related immigration matters, having dealt with immigration in the UK and Dubai, for over 9 years. We provide advice on areas of UK immigration including but not limited to the following:

UK Visitor Visas

There are two categories of Standard visitor visas; Short term Visitor visa and Long term Visitor visa.

An application can be made for a Standard Visitor visa if the applicant wants to visit the UK for a vacation, to see family and friends, business, to take part in sports or creative events or another reason ie.to receive private medical treatment.

Short-term visit visas are generally granted for a stay in the UK for up to 6 months.

The applicant may be able to stay for longer if he/she is:

• visiting the UK for private medical treatment - up to 11 months
• an academic on sabbatical and coming to the UK for research – the applicant, spouse or civil partner may be able to stay for up to 12 months

For Long-term visit visas, if the applicant can prove that he/she needs to visit the UK regularly over a longer period, he/she can apply for a visa that lasts 2, 5 or 10 years. He/she can stay for a maximum of 6 months on each visit.

If the applicant is under 18 years old when he/she applies, the long-term visit visa will only be valid for up to 6 months after he/she turns 18.

Dependent relatives and Applications relating to married, unmarried, civil partners and engaged partners

Applicants in this category will require a ‘family of a settled person’ visa if they are from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland and want to join a partner or family member who is living in the UK permanently, for 6 months or more.

Your family member in the UK can be a British citizen; have settled in the UK or has asylum or humanitarian protection in the UK. 

If you meet the eligibility requirements, you can apply to join your partner (spouse, fiancé(e), civil or unmarried partner); join your parent ; come to look after your child or come to be looked after by family. 

Students

We can assist in making student visa applications which fall under the Tier 4 (General) student visa category. This is a points based system (PBS) application whereby the applicant will have to score 40 points on the points table to be eligible for a student visa.   In general, a Tier 4 (General) student visa application can be made 3 months before the course commences if the applicant is 16 or over and has been offered a place on a course; can speak, read, write and understand English;  has enough money to support himself/herself and pay for the course (the amount will vary depending on each individuals circumstances) and meet the eligbility requirements.  

Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)

We can assist you in making a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa if you want to set up or run a business in the UK; work for your business; including being self-employed. The main eligibility requirement is that you must be from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland territories and you meet all the other eligibility requirements among which include a ready accessibility (depending on the category) of £50,000 or £200,000.

You can make the application 3 months before you travel and expect a decision on your visa within about 3 weeks.

Once a visa is granted, the validity is for a maximum of 3 years and 4 months and after the expiry of this period you can apply to extend this visa for another 2 years thereafter potentially making you eligible for indefinite leave to remain in UK.

Tier 1 (Investor)

You can apply for a Tier 1 (Investor) visa if you want to invest £2,000,000 or more in UK government bonds, share capital or loan capital in active and trading UK registered companies. There are two more options here: you can apply to settle after 2 years if you invest £10 million or you can apply to settle after 3 years if you invest £5 million.

We can advise on the issued guidelines on the activities of the proposed business and the  investment which should not be in a company mainly engaged in property investment, property management or property development. 

You can make the application 3 months before you travel and expect a decision on your visa within about 3 weeks. Once a visa is granted, the validity is for a maximum of 3 years and 4 months and after the expiry of this period, you can apply to extend this visa for another 2 years thereafter potentially making you eligible for indefinite leave to remain in UK.

We also provide legal advice and representation in all types of nationality applications to the UK Border Agency, including Naturalisation as a British Citizen; naturalisation to be a British Citizen following the completion of 6 years (the routes, process, and eligibility differ, depending mainly on the type of visa you are holding at the end of the 6 years)  in virtually all categories of visas. 

We can assist with registration as a British Citizen.  The eligibility requirements are wide enough to accommodate certain individuals to register -the main being the citizenship of the parents at the time of the child’s birth. The citizenship of the parents plays a vital role in advising for such registrations.

We at James Berry & Associates are also able to advise in the following areas: Family Law, Wills and Estate Inheritance, Employment, Corporate and Commercial, Company Set Ups, Company Secretarial Services, Trademarks, Real Estate, Debt Recovery and Litigation. 

In addition to the above services, our Legal Consultants and UK qualified Solicitors can offer the following services : Administering oaths*, Certifying true copies of passports or any other documents, Witnessing signatures, preparing Statutory Declarations, advise on Deeds of Postponements or other documents required by UK banking institutes.   

*Please note that we are not Notaries Public although our UK qualified Solicitors are Commissioners for Oaths.