Immigration and Asylum Law

Geoffrey Harding (pictured right) is the BLS Immigration Supervisor who is accredited by the Law Society's Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme (IAAS) as a Supervisor and Level 2 Caseworker and by OISC (Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner) at Level 3. As well as putting a case to the Home Office, Geoffrey represents his clients at Immigration Tribunal and Appeals Tribunals when necessary.

mmigration and Asylum clients also receive advice and work on their cases from Harshida Khetia (pictured below right) who has gained IAAS Level 1 accreditation and is also authorised by OISC to give Level 2 advice.

Rebekah Bageya is a trainee solicitor at BLS, now in her final year and working in the Immigration and Asylum department where Rebekah has achieved IAAS Level 1 accreditation and is authorised by OISC to Level 1 as well.

Weekly drop-in Immigration advice sessions

Every Thursday afternoon between 2 and 4 pm BLS holds a "drop-in" session for people seeking Immigration advice. You do not need to book an appointment, but clients are seen on a "first come, first served" basis and you may have to wait to be seen. If you arrive near the end of the session and there are a few people ahead of you, you may be asked to come back the following week.

These drop-in sessions are for people who are eligible for Legal Help so you need to bring proof of your income as follows:

• If you are in receipt of benefits, letter from Job Centre Plus, HMRC, DWP etc relevant for the current month stating amount and type of any benefit received
• If you are working, pay slips for the last month
• If you have no income, a letter from whoever is providing you with board and lodging confirming the amount of support they give you
• Last month's bank statements
• Passport or other photo ID

If you do not have the correct financial evidence unfortunately you will not be able to see an adviser.

Outreach

Clients from immigrant community groups benefit from having legal advice on immigration matters available to them at a place they know, where they feel safe, and where translators can be available when necessary. To achieve this, BLS Immigration caseworkers provide regular monthly outreach sessions Farsophone Association (last Friday in the month, afternoon) in the Golders Green Library, 156 Golders Green Road, London NW11 8HE.

BLS undertakes:

• General advice on status
• All asylum cases
• All appeals (inc. asylum, dispersal, marriage applications, appeals outside the rules, deportation, non-compliance with support provisions, refusal of ILTR)
• Applications outside the Immigration Rules
• Judicial Review
• Complex Marriage Applications
• Human Rights Act Applications, Appeals and Judicial Review
• Advice on applications for naturalisation or travel documents
• Extensions of ELTR

BLS does not undertake:

• Detention Cases (generally, unless already an existing client or a member of client’s family)
• Applications for Naturalisation
• Applications for Travel Documents/Passports
• Initial Applications for NASS support