All Articles: OISC
Lawyers who earned millions from unregulated immigration advice fined £45,000
Three lawyers convicted in 2019 of providing unregulated immigration advice worth millions have been ordered to cough up over £45,000 between them in fines and compensation. Dan Romulus Dandes, Babbar Ali Jamil and Zia Bi were sentenced at the Old Ba ...
8th January 2021What are the continuing professional development CPD training rules for immigration lawyers?
Since 2016 there has been no minimum CPD training hours requirement and training can be undertaken by any training provider or even by informal methods including self study. The rules for solicitors, barristers and OISC advisers are all broadly simila ...
22nd August 2019Online immigration law CPD training for solicitors, barristers and OISC advisers
We’ve been busy working away at creating new CPD immigration training courses and updating our existing ones. Our courses are perfect for CPD for solicitors, barristers and OISC advisers and we now offer over 100 hours of CPD training to our 2,5 ...
15th August 2019“Torrent of time-wasting nonsense”: tribunal sends immigration adviser for OISC investigation
The Upper Tribunal has referred an immigration adviser to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), accusing him of running judicial review cases without a licence and failing to properly check expert reports. The case is R (Hoxha &a ...
15th April 2019What is the OISC?
The OISC, or the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner to give the organisation its full title, is a governmental body established by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to regulate the provision of immigration advice and services throughout ...
29th March 2019Briefing: overcoming language barriers in lawyer-client communication
In this blog post, Judith Reynolds, Research Associate at Cardiff University’s Centre for Language and Communication Research, offers immigration law practitioners some reflections and tips for communicating with foreign language-speaking clients. A ...
22nd February 2019OISC immigration law regulator launches new scheme for EU settled status applications
The OISC, the regulator for immigration advisers who are not solicitors, barristers or CILEx qualified, has launched a new, light touch Brexit scheme. It will enable charities and not-for-profit organisations to qualify to give immigration advice on t ...
29th January 2019Advising EU citizens on their settlement rights may be illegal warns regulator
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (the OISC to those who know it well) has quietly published guidance outlining when it considers it will be illegal to provide advice to EU citizens and their non-EU family members under the settled ...
5th December 2018Solicitors unfit to practise can become regulated immigration advisers
A solicitor who is suspended from practice can nevertheless advise clients on immigration law. This simple but perhaps surprising fact was highlighted by a recent case before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in which an East London solicitor unsuc ...
30th November 2017The First-tier Tribunal can re-open complaints determined by the OISC
The case of Visa Joy Ltd will be of interest to immigration advisers regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). The OISC makes sure that immigration advisers meet certain standards and are “fit and competent” ...
24th October 2017Review of OISC published by Home Office
The latest triennial review of the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has been published by the Home Office. The organisation will not be abolished and will continue as a non departmental public body at arms length from Government. ...
12th January 2017What are new CPD rules for solicitors, OISC advisers and barristers?
New CPD rules are being introduced for solicitors and barristers in England and Wales and OISC advisers across the UK. The new rules are broadly similar in nature but start at different times, so it is important to know which rules apply when. At the ...
19th October 2016Immigration regulator to give up on day job
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) is currently consulting on the regulation of immigration advisers. Or, more accurately, the de-regulation of immigration advisers. It is illegal to give immigration advice in the UK unless the ...
11th November 2009