Immigration: Advisory Services

The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (IAA 1999) specifies that immigration advice and services can only be provided by qualified persons, meaning those registered by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) or those who are members of the legal profession (the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board (or Scottish and Northern Ireland equivalents), or the Institute of Legal Executives).

The Government takes the unlawful provision of immigration advice and services seriously. However, not all who have been provided with unregulated immigration advice report it to the Home Office or to regulators. Advice seekers who have received bad service from an IAA-registered adviser or who have received immigration advice from unregulated persons are encouraged to complain to the IAA.

In 2023 the Home Office’s Professional Enabler’s Disruptions (PED) team was set up to ensure the integrity of the immigration system by disrupting the activity of members of the legal profession, immigration advisers, doctors, accountants, employers and officials who use their expertise or position to facilitate irregular migrants in abusing the immigration system.

Under Section 91 of the IAA 1999, it is a criminal offence to provide unlawful immigration advice and services and is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine. The recent Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (BSAIA 2025) has also strengthened the regulatory framework further, including by creating a new Section 17 offence of advertising unlawful immigration advice and services online, and by introducing powers for the Immigration Services Commissioner to issue fines and penalties to unregistered advisers providing advice unlawfully.

New powers within the BSAIA 2025 will enable the IAA to act more quickly and directly using civil sanctions, including fines of up to £15,000, and introduces mechanisms for compensation and repayment.

The new powers will also:

• Compel information and cooperation from current and former advisers
• Issue penalties for non-compliance with investigations
• Investigate misconduct after individuals have left the sector
• Suspend registrations immediately in cases of suspected serious misconduct
• Prevent banned individuals from operating under another adviser’s supervision

In addition, acquiring powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act will enable profits from illegal immigration advice to be seized.

The IAA’s new enforcement regime is dual-purpose, using criminal law for serious offences and IAA civil powers for faster action against those providing unregulated advice outside of the regulatory scheme.

Additionally, Home Office Immigration Enforcement is committed to tackling those who abuse immigration law to facilitate immigration crime in the UK. Immigration Enforcement utilise a vast toolkit to target unscrupulous employers and professional enablers who facilitate abuse and illegal working in the UK.

Many criminal investigations relate to employers, agencies or third parties who facilitate illegal working in the UK, be that through criminal activity relating to helping illegal migrants to work illegally, such as providing counterfeit identity documents or enabling their entry into the UK, or criminality relating to the establishment of fraudulent businesses.

Professional enablers abuse the immigration system and exploit the vulnerable, sometimes acting as unlicensed and unregulated immigration advisers. Immigration Enforcement has strengthened existing relationships with specialists in the NCA, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the IAA to form a strong network of multi-agency investigators who can develop intelligence, investigate and prosecute offenders.

The provision of unregulated immigration advice is a covert activity, so the number of individuals who have received such advice is not formally recorded. The data requested is not available from published statistics and could only be collated and verified at disproportionate cost.