Need a recommendation immigration lawyer

Citizenship is sooooooo easy.  Absolutely no need. 

The timing is just terrible for another 500 pages of paperwork. I was forced to get back into employment for a year so that I could get positive proof of being in good stead with HMRC -- they don't send you a 'hey, you're all paid up' notice if you're a sole trader, and you can't prove a negative, so I had to put life an ambition on hold for a while. Now that I've done my time and gotten a P60, I'm going back to sole trader for my dream job. But it's going to be a crazy couple months ramping up with a health-tech startup and launching my master's degree research project in two hospital sites and just generally trying to stay sane. I know I'm being lazy, but these applications are like a part-time job, and now there's only 10-ish months until all my tax is self-assessed again.

Did you hear back/are they still in business? I'm thinking about using them for my citizenship application, so that I can finally get that sorted.

Not yet, but I will be phoning them later today. (Waiting for a new oven install right now, then lunch, then I'll phone.)

Ok, spoke to someone there on the phone. I am completely unimpressed. According to him (and he never said his name - he was the guy who answered the phone) the Daughter can work or do whatever she likes because she came in as a dependent on me and holds a residency card. I explained to him that SHE is not Irish, but an American, and he said the residency card says she can work so she can work as much as she likes and it should not impact her dependent status. I made sure he knew her age.

When I told him that the EU help service that the Scottish Government set up said she should not be working or she would risk her "dependent" status, he said that was completely inaccurate, and that they were discussing UK law, not EU law and that they didn't know what they were talking about. (They had sent me the official government guidance doc on dependency.)  He also insisted that she does NOT have to register for pre-settled status (which the government web pages say she does) because I am Irish.  That bit I know is absolutely incorrect. I told him she already had pre-settled.

So, wow. He also suggested that I could call the Home Office, which I'm going to do to get it from them. He wasn't exactly sure who at the Home Office to phone.  So, is this a legitimate lawyer referral - I dialed 0207-953-3090 for Medivisas.com - or someone with a similar name?

 At least it didn't cost me anything.

Well that all sounds like an awful experience. But thanks for the update. Back to the drawing board for me (or maybe I just give up on the dream of feeling secure in this country??)!

Welcome to our world.

I've emailed two questions to three law firms here in Glasgow, giving the Daughter's particulars, and asking how much a consultation to get those questions answered would be.  It will  be interesting to see the  result of that.  This is what the help service had told us, previously (bold is mine):

Where a non-EEA child of an EEA citizen holds pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme it is important to determine whether the non-EEA child obtained their pre-settled status when they were under 21 years old or whether they obtained the grant of pre-settled status after they turn 21.

The Immigration Rules Appendix EU set out that if the child was granted pre-settled status before they were 21, then there is no need for them to be financially dependent on the EEA citizen sponsor parent for the 5 residency qualifying period before they can apply for settled status.] If the grant of pre-settled status was made after the non-EEA child turned 21, then they have to remain dependent on the EEA citizen sponsor parent for the remainder of the 5 years before they apply for settled status. In this case it appears that the child was granted pre-settled status after they turn 21 in which case, they will need to remain financially dependent on the EEA citizen sponsor parent until they are able to apply for settled status (this will be 5 years from the date that the family permit was issued and she took up residence in the UK in 2017). This would mean that the non-EEA child should not take up employment until they are able to attain settled status as it would likely have the consequence of invalidating their financial dependency on the EEA citizen sponsor parent.


That seems pretty cut-and-dried.


When I look on the Medivisas website, it only shows one partner. I wonder if the company has been sold? I googled the company and I see that in 2017 there was some activity that seems as if it might be a transfer of ownership. Their most recent online financial statement also indicates only one employee, and the same person listed as a partner on the website is on the financial doc.  https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/OC313590/filing-history

I am googling for Victoria Sharkey and not coming up with anything current.

Bummer.

Welcome to our world.

It's just years of torture through excessive and sometimes-impossible paperwork requirements. If you wonder why you're feeling tired all the time, I have a likely culprit. Heightened stress levels for an extended period are exhausting.

Yeah, I guess. But for years I commuted two hours each way, juggled raising a child as a single parent, and worked two jobs (sometimes three) at a time. Then again, after decades of that, maybe my reserves are gone. It looks as if, possibly, by going ahead and getting pre-settled now instead of at the last minute we've kind of shot ourselves in the foot - it says that she'd only have to be dependent on me for the rest of the 5 year period after she filed. Her 5 years is up in 2022, so, possibly, she could have been working up to the point we had to file. Or not. I dunno, and it's done now so I'm not going to worry about it. Trying to keep up with two sets of laws (EU and UK) that don't agree on the same topic is...frustrating.

Well, eventually it'll all sort out. Or we'll go to France or Vermont. 

I just want the Daughter to get to finish her education here, as she had planned to do. After that, it's all gravy.

When I look on the Medivisas website, it only shows one partner. I wonder if the company has been sold? I googled the company and I see that in 2017 there was some activity that seems as if it might be a transfer of ownership. Their most recent online financial statement also indicates only one employee, and the same person listed as a partner on the website is on the financial doc.  https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/OC313590/filing-history

I am googling for Victoria Sharkey and not coming up with anything current.

Bummer.

That's interesting. She definitely used to be listed as a partner on the website. If she's resigned, it hasn't been updated at companies house.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/OC313590/officers

Tried in the Avast browser, and also the Firefox browser. That's why I was asking if someone might have their contact info? 

Have you tried Netscape, or possibly the AOL browser?  I might have an AOL CD that I can send to you.

Sorry, just joking!  I just checked the website with Chrome and it works fine for me.  It does have some unnecessary flashy menu junk that may stop it from loading correctly in those other browsers.

Yeah, it's loading now. But for a day or two it was not loading.

(Wiseass.)

I can understand avoiding technology because of principles, I  personally avoid all of Facebook's products when I can. However, I think you are shooting yourself in the foot by using crappy browsers.  Maybe you could use Safari?  It's a decent browser and Apple is very good at protection of privacy.

I'm currently using the Avast browser, which is built on Chrome (?).  The latest Firefox browser was causing me too many problems. It kept auto-updating, even though I'd tell it I didn't want to, and the latest version wouldn't even give me that option. Some things were not working with it, so I asked and the
Daughter recommended Avast. https://www.softwarebattle.com/avast-secure-browser/

Has anyone dealt with these people?  https://iasservices.org.uk/glasgow/

Apparently they have branches all over the UK.  They have offered us a good rate for a consult, and will provide a write-up of the advice they tell us. The appointment would be in two weeks, so we have a little time to check up on them and make sure our list of questions is complete.

Has anyone dealt with these people?  https://iasservices.org.uk/glasgow/

Apparently they have branches all over the UK.  They have offered us a good rate for a consult, and will provide a write-up of the advice they tell us. The appointment would be in two weeks, so we have a little time to check up on them and make sure our list of questions is complete.

I'd be less concerned with the physical location and put more emphasis on the fact that the company you pick are expert in EU immigration law in the UK.

Yeah, location does not matter. How does one KNOW if they are experts in EU immigration law in the UK? They all say they have experts....