Immigration Advice Service Ltd Reviews

We took a confidential advice session on an immigration issue. We had an initial phone call with a non-expert to find out more about us, who concluded they were 'well-positioned' to deal with our case and he scheduled us a face-to-face appointment earlier than the slots they had publicly available because our situation was urgent. This was good, and saved us a long drive to one of their other offices. On the day though, they didn't seem to be expecting us even though we'd emailed ahead the day before and the appointment was 20 mins late to start. Bad start, but willing to accept there had just been an admin error. During our session, we felt the senior expert that we'd been assigned didn't know the answers to some of our questions, even though we had sent them through previously. Rather than admitting they weren't sure, we were given inaccurate information, which obviously panicked us. On a couple of questions, it felt like we actually knew more about the topic than the expert, who still tried to advise us. We ended up going away and doing our own research, at which point we discovered information contradictory to what we'd been told by them. The whole point of us taking the advice session was so that we could be more confident in trusting their expertise, rather than just going with information we had found out ourselves. In reality, it just slowed us down in fighting our case. Happily, our situation is now resolved, however it was with no thanks to them, which is a disappointment because their advice session didn't come cheap for us. Finally, as part of the advice session, they promised written confirmation of the advice given. We got an email saying to let them know if we wanted them to take up our case, and also to let them know if the written advice didn't come within a week. We suspect this was their way of avoiding having to do the work as I'm not sure how they were going to provide this written advice, given that the expert hadn't taken any notes during the session. As we'd already found out their info was wrong and we'd decided not to trust them with our case, we didn't bother chasing the written advice, and sure enough, it never came through.

I hope my review will help others AVOID this company so to save you from the hassle I'm going through ATM. To make story short, I was given wrong legal advices by caseworker Nasreen Ali, which led to my APLICCATION BEING REFUSED by the Home Office! My case was fairly easy, and the only reason I got refused was that I applied from within the UK on a visitors' visa (due to COVID-19 and flight got canceled). I've asked for Nasreen's legal advice on it at the time, and no where in the process she mentioned the risks of applying from within the UK while on a visitors' visa. Well apparently, it is a big NO NO and very basic knowledge (to immigration solicitors), that I revealed while talking to several solicitors after getting refused. If she would have warned me that it is problematic and risky, I would have waited to return to my country and apply from there. She also didn't mentioned that I shouldn't leave the UK while my application is being processed, otherwise it will withdraw the application automatically. There are many other examples I can give (like not returning calls/emails for a whole month) that shows that I receive a very unprofessional and poor service. If I were to know all of these things in first place, I wouldn't have paid for legal advice. I paid good money for IMMIGRATION ADVICE SERVICE (as their name states) and not just for someone to submit all of the papers in the right order. I am now chasing the company for a refund, for this very unprofessional legal advice. They have offered me 50% back (meaning they acknowledge their fault), but I simply want all of my money back, given that I need to hire a new solicitor and pay for a second application all over again. I wouldn't write a review saying avoid the company only based on my experience with Nasreen (I would simply say avoid Nasreen). But in the process of applying I have realized that I was given another wrong advice by a different solicitor in the first consultation meeting regarding the English test I needed to take, which led me to sit the English test twice because of it. So all in all, I would advice you to choose a different company! And for IAS, please please have the dignity to come and say sorry for the mess one of your workers made, take responsibility and REFUND me fully! I am not asking for compensation for the lost time, and additional expenses I will now have to make because of this unsuccessful application, I am only asking the minimum, the money I paid you and the application fee, and in return got negligent legal advice.