Staff, Fee & Complaints Transparency

A number of staff will be involved in the conduct of your matter. The following mini-bios provide an at-a-glance view of our staff, their qualifications and experience, and who they are supervised by.

Gazala Rashid, Director and Solicitor

Gazala Rashid is the founder and Director of UK Migration Lawyers. She has extensive experience in both legal aid and private immigration work, and is an LSC Level 2 accredited caseworker and supervisor.

Gazala qualified as a solicitor in 1999 and has had exposure to a number of areas of law including crime, family, professional negligence and Immigration, asylum and human rights. Gazala’s vision for UKML was to create an accessible platform for clients to receive quality, affordable specialist immigration advice nationwide. 10 years on, UKML has grown into a centre of excellence, having recruited some of the best talent in immigration law.

Ross Little, Practice Manager

Ross looks after the day-to-day running of the UK Migration office and various other associated activities such as IT and marketing. Ross has a Masters in Business from the University of St Andrews and brings to UK Migration Lawyers a wealth of commercial experience gained in both the law and academic sectors. Ross is unmistakably Scottish, hailing from Glasgow, and enjoys travelling, socialising and eating out more than he should.

Stacey Campbell, Senior Solicitor

Stacey Campbell is a senior solicitor and supervisor at UK Migration Lawyers specialising in UK immigration and nationality law. She has expertise in the points-based system, Tiers 2, 4 and 5, including sponsored migrants as well as asylum, family, business, British nationality, British registration and EEA regulation matters. As Stacey has a background of advocacy in Court, she can appropriately direct clients as to the nature of their appeal hearings and is well placed to meet the needs of her clients and put them at ease. Stacey has been practicing law for 8 years.

Mehvesh Akbar, Immigration Caseworker

Mehvesh has been working as an immigration caseworker for a total of 8 years and has a degree in Law from the University of Wolverhampton.  Mehvesh works under the supervision of Abdul Zeb and has a broad knowledge of all areas of immigration law. She strives to provide her client’s with excellent service and successful applications.  Mehvesh is fluent in English, Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi. Mehvesh is supervised by Stacey Campbell.

Harris Qadir, Immigration Caseworker

Harris Qadir has been working as an immigration caseworker for over 3 years. Harris has a degree in Law from Birmingham City University. Harris works under the supervision of Abdul Zeb across all areas of immigration law and has has also been responsible for many other positive applications submitted to the Home Office, including applications under EU law, Indefinite Leave to Remain, Further Leave to Remain and Naturalisation applications. Harris is supervised by Sunil Mayhay.

Our Fees and Price Transparency

The table below shows our minimum pricing for each of the main services or application types that we offer.  The price that we ask for a particular matter may well be lower or higher than the price listed here for a number of reasons:

• If your matter is particularly straightforward or you have done much of the work yourself, then we may well offer a lower fee for our services.
• If you do not wish for us to offer our normal full service then we may negotiate a lower fee with you.
• If there are particular complications with a matter that mean that a lot more work will need to be done to achieve a positive prospect of success then this may be reflected in a higher fee for our services. Such complications include:

1. Criminal convictions of the applicants and sponsors.
2. Previous negative immigration history (such as overstaying or non-compliance with the immigration rules).

• Previous behaviour that brings into doubt good character of the applicants or sponsors.

1. Any undisclosed information that was not disclosed to ourselves and/or the relevant immigration authority.
2. Inability or refusal to provide standard documentary evidence.
3. Exceptional circumstances that require mitigation (particularly in protracted matters that require extensive examination and representation)

We are also aware that sometimes our fees may be unaffordable to some and, in exceptional circumstances, we may offer to divide payments across a number of a period however we reserve the right not to submit or complete any application until full fees are paid.

There may be some additional costs that are required to be paid to us to pay third parties on your behalf. It is our practice not to involve ourselves in such payments, called disbursements, as we usually ask our clients to pay these directly themselves.  Such payments include:

• The Home Office fee. These fees change regularly and you can find the most up-to-date version at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table
• Immigration Health Surcharge – this is variable based on a number of factors and the most up-to-date version can be found at https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application/how-much-pay
• Interpretering and translation fees – we do not offer these services and you should assess the affordability of these services.
• DHL / Postage / Courier / Exceptionally heavy postage – couriers’ fees differ depending in the weight of that being sent and the location of the recipient. As a rule, we do not make a charge for Royal Mail delivery within the UK
• Expert and Medical Expert Reports – we do not offer these services and you should assess the affordability of these services.
• Court Fees – Currently, the court fee is £140 and we may well request this as a disbursement that is hold on account.
• Non-standard counsel fees – if you plan to use counsel of your own choosing then you are liable for their fee. The fee for counsel varies wildly depending upon the qualifications and experience of each individual barrister.

What our work includes:

As all applications differ depending on the type of application and the facts of the matter, all standard steps in preparing an application on your behalf.

Standard steps include file opening and legal checks, 1-hour consultation, information gathering, documents review, preperation of representations, preperation and submission of applications. Generally, on a standard application, we will have completed all work no later than 3-months from the date of instruction, however, this is largely dependent on the timely propvision of supporting documents.

What the work does not include:

• Any non-standard steps including unexpected problems or complexities, further representations, advice following a negative decision
• Changes in your instruction
• Delays resulting in unforeseen work
• A change in the facts of a matter such as by misrepresentation

Here follows our standard fee structure.

Where the applicant, client or the beneficiary of any ambit of work or disbursement payment is normally resident in the UK, then these fees will attract VAT at the prevailing rate which is currently 20%. VAT rules are complex and HMRC have produced guidance on who pays VAT, on what and where - please see VAT Notice 741A Section 3.

Complaints Procedure Transparency Information

We take complaints at UK Migration Lawyers extremely seriously because we want our clients to be happy and to offer them the best possible service we can.  Where we have fallen short of this we want to know exactly what happened to stop this happening again and how we can make things right, so every complaint is automatically escalated to a Manager’s attention.  At this stage, a complaint is still deemed to be informal and if it can be resolved to the satisfaction of all then there is no need to progress to a formal complaint.

The person wishing to bring a formal complaint against UK Migration Lawyers must do so in writing to Gazala Rashid, Director via email or at the following address:

Gazala Rashid
UK Migration Lawyers
Centre Court
1301 Stratford Road
Birmingham
B28 9HH

[email protected]

Formal Complaints Procedure

Step One

This formal complaints procedure is deemed to have begun upon our receipt of your written full and final complaint. If your complaint is not received on a normal working day, this procedure will be deemed to have commenced upon the first normal working day thereafter.

You should ensure that your full and final complaint fully details the issues that you wish to complain about to ensure that this process can be conducted thoroughly and expeditiously.

If, however, you have previously intimated your grounds of complaint to this firm in writing, you are afforded one calendar week from receipt of this letter to add additional grounds and/or confirm you wish to proceed to Step Two. Should no such grounds or confirmation be received during this timeframe, I will proceed to Step Two using the grounds already received and I will confirm the same including the deemed commencement date of your formal complaint.

Please note, once we are in receipt of your written full and final complaint, it is not possible to raise further issues or grounds.

Step Two

Within four calendar weeks of my confirmation that Step One is complete, I will investigate the grounds of complaint that you have raised by reviewing your matter’s file and speaking to the members of staff concerned with its conduct.

Once my investigation is complete, I will provide you with a detailed written response including, if applicable, any proposed solution. If, for some reason, I cannot complete the investigation and provide you with a detailed response within four calendar weeks, I will write to you to notify you of the same together with the reason and giving a revised timescale.

Upon your receipt of my detailed response, you are afforded two calendar weeks within which time to confirm if you are satisfied, or otherwise, with my findings. In the alternative, should no such confirmation be received during this timeframe, I will consider this indication that you do not wish to pursue the matter further and the formal complaints procedure will be deemed complete.

Step Three

I have eight weeks in which to consider your complaint from the commencement of this formal complaints procedure, however, if you remain unhappy after this procedure’s completion then you may ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are: - Telephone: 0300 555 0333 Minicom: 0300 555 1777
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

A complaint can be made to the SRA if it relates to the professional conduct of UK Migration Lawyers. Further information is available on the SRA's website (https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/). The SRA can be contacted by telephone (0370 606 2555), by email ([email protected]) or by post (SRA Report, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN).