Immigration
Immigration lawyers deal with all legal matters relating to immigration and nationality. The work ranges from asylum and human rights claims through applications by family members and students to how businesses can secure immigration status for their employees. There is a significant and increasing EU law element, and many cases raise important human rights issues. The law is rapidly developing in terms of both statute law and jurisprudence, and procedural timeframes are tight. There is a good deal of overlap with employment, tax, social welfare, mental health, prison law, criminal law and civil actions. Rizwana Quazi, now a business immigration lawyer, never dreamed of being a solicitor: “I didn’t choose to be a solicitor initially. I always said that if I were to go into the legal profession, I would want to be a barrister, so I did my law degree and Bar Professional Training Course thinking that was the route I was going to pursue.” From asylum seekers to business immigration Following her degree, Rizwana began looking for experience: “I started looking for a pupillage, but during that time I needed experience, so I began doing advocacy at a solicitors’ firm. I do business immigration now, but when I started it was just about getting experience. We were asked to go to the immigration tribunal and represent asylum seekers. It was a good way to get the experience that I needed because it was all advocacy. If you were lucky enough to be a case worker – which I was – you got to do everything end-to-end. Because I was taking cases from the start all the way through to the finish, I felt I was getting the best of both worlds.”
take part in the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme in order to switch to become a solicitor – something which was ultimately a hard decision: “I didn’t want to let the barrister route go, even though I was quite senior, because I had invested a lot. I eventually moved firms and continued with immigration, but I started to steer away from asylum and human rights. I decided to go into business immigration because the points- based system launched in 2008 and I wanted to focus on a different aspect of immigration.” Over time, Rizwana has fully immersed herself into the sector: “Now I strictly do business immigration and 90% of what I do is corporate. It’s a very different process and incredibly fast-paced. There is a lot of strategy involved and our focus is on helping businesses add to their workforces, whether this is highly skilled workers or transfers.” Ultimately, according to Rizwana, “it’s all about finding solutions for your clients – we have to work with clients to come up with the best solutions for them.” Implications of shifting immigration policies There are undoubtedly significant changes happening to the United Kingdom’s immigration policies, but the impact of these changes still continues to be unclear: “Brexit is challenging the industry as a whole because we don’t know what the ultimate outcome will be, but it will certainly be wide ranging. Brexit has steadily kept us busy as lots of clients have wanted clarity on how best to deal with the uncertainty or how to manage their workforce. Many global businesses are still considering whether they’ll stay in the UK or relocate. Others have real concerns about recruiting highly skilled talent who may no longer want to relocate to the UK.”
Rizwana eventually became a senior case worker and was offered an opportunity to
Not only that, says Rizwana, but “a lot of employers haven’t previously needed to
For more firms that work in this practice area, please use the “Training contract regional indexes” starting on p205.
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