Can accountants give immigration advice

Q: What counts as immigration advice or immigration services?

Section 82 defines both terms: Immigration advice is advice that relates to a particular individual, is given in connection with a relevant matter, and is given by someone who knows it relates to that individual and that matter. Immigration services means making representations on behalf of a particular individual in civil proceedings before a UK court, tribunal or adjudicator, or in correspondence with a Minister or government department, in connection with a relevant matter. The relevant subjects include asylum claims, applications for entry clearance or for leave to enter or remain, applications for an immigration employment document, nationality and citizenship, removal and deportation, bail, and appeals or judicial reviews on any of these. An immigration employment document includes any document relating to employment issued for the purposes of the immigration rules. The rules bite when advice is given in the UK in the course of a business, whether or not for profit; the IAA says profit making organisations are always treated as acting in the course of a business, even where immigration work is a sideline.

Q: How might this look in practice?

Illustration only. A restaurant client holds a sponsor licence and is recruiting a chef from overseas. The firm runs payroll and acts as an additional Level 1 User. Within scope: preparing the client's accounts and payroll, explaining in general terms the salary records the business should keep, and administering its certificate allocation on the system on the director's instructions. Out of scope: telling the chef whether his qualifications meet the route requirements, completing his visa application, or writing to the Home Office on his behalf. The firm should refer him to a regulated adviser, or the employer can help him free of charge under its own exemption.

Immigration advice and immigration services may only be given in the UK by a qualified person, and accountancy bodies are not among the bodies that can authorise their members to give it. An accountant can prepare accounts, payroll records and general information that a client or employer uses in a visa or sponsor process, but must stop before advising a particular person on their application or acting for them with the Home Office, unless the firm registers with the Immigration Advice Authority.

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Who regulates immigration advice?

Part V of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 controls who may give immigration advice. The regulator is the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA), which rebranded from the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner in January 2025. The IAA says it regulates over 3,700 individual advisers and 2,000 organisations, and that it can investigate and prosecute people giving immigration advice illegally, enter an adviser’s premises and seize records.

Solicitors and barristers are regulated for this work by their own regulators. The Home Office sponsor guidance lists the designated bodies and regulators for the purposes of the 1999 Act as the Legal Services Board (with oversight of the Law Society, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and the Bar Council), the Law Society of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates, the Law Society of Northern Ireland and the Bar Council of Northern Ireland. No accountancy body is on that list, so ICAEW, ACCA or AAT membership gives no authority to advise. The Legal Services Act 2007 also leaves the 1999 Act restrictions untouched; see reserved legal activities accountants cannot carry out.

What counts as immigration advice or immigration services?

Section 82 defines both terms:

Immigration advice is advice that relates to a particular individual, is given in connection with a relevant matter, and is given by someone who knows it relates to that individual and that matter.
Immigration services means making representations on behalf of a particular individual in civil proceedings before a UK court, tribunal or adjudicator, or in correspondence with a Minister or government department, in connection with a relevant matter.

The relevant subjects include asylum claims, applications for entry clearance or for leave to enter or remain, applications for an immigration employment document, nationality and citizenship, removal and deportation, bail, and appeals or judicial reviews on any of these. An immigration employment document includes any document relating to employment issued for the purposes of the immigration rules. The rules bite when advice is given in the UK in the course of a business, whether or not for profit; the IAA says profit making organisations are always treated as acting in the course of a business, even where immigration work is a sideline.

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What can an accountant do without registering?

The IAA’s Immigration Assistance practice note gives an accountant example. A self employed client applying for permission to stay needs to show his business is viable and asks his accountant for financial statements. The IAA says:

the accountant can prepare a full set of accounts, because preparing business accounts is not a relevant matter and she is acting on the client’s brief, not on the purpose the documents will serve;
she can advise on what type of evidence would be suitable for his business, and draw attention to points that may need further advice, such as significant business debts; but
she cannot help him complete the application, or advise whether his documents or position meet the requirements, unless she is registered with the IAA.

The practice note also says publishing general information that is not related to an individual case is not regulated, and that signposting someone to a regulated adviser or to GOV.UK guidance is permitted.

Where is the line on sponsor licences and employers?

Accountants often support employer clients with the sponsor system through payroll and outsourced HR. The IAA practice note says an organisation advising an employer in general terms, for example about the immigration rules for workers, does not need regulation, nor does one engaged to administer the employer’s Certificate of Sponsorship allocation or carry out compliance checks on its staff. Regulation is needed if it advises on a particular worker’s case, acts as legal representative for an employee’s application, or makes applications on the employer’s behalf to extend employees’ leave and assigns an individual certificate to support a further leave application.

Employers themselves have more room. Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (Part 5 Exemption: Licensed Sponsors) Order 2022, a licensed sponsor may give advice and services up to Level 1 to people it directly sponsors, and their immediate family, in connection with applications on a sponsored work or study route, provided it is free of charge. That exemption belongs to the sponsor, not to its accountant.

The Home Office sponsor guidance (Part 1, version valid from 28 August 2026) adds practical limits:

a representative used for a sponsor licence application or other dealings with the Home Office must be based in the UK and, if giving immigration advice or services, authorised under section 84; an unqualified representative may be committing a criminal offence;
the Authorising Officer must be a paid member of staff or office holder of the sponsor and cannot be a representative;
a sponsor must not nominate a contractor or consultant engaged for a specific purpose to any Key Personnel role;
where a third party delivers some or all of the sponsor’s HR function, an employee of that organisation can be an additional Level 1 User on the sponsor management system, but not the primary or sole Level 1 User; and
the sponsor is responsible for everything done by its system users, including people from outside the organisation.

So an accountancy firm running a client’s payroll and HR can sit on the system as an additional user and administer certificates, but should not advise individual workers on their visas or correspond with UK Visas and Immigration for them without registration. Spell this out in the engagement letter.

What if the firm wants to offer immigration work?

The firm must register with the IAA as an organisation, and each adviser must be authorised at a level and in a category of work. There are three levels: Level 1 Advice and Assistance, Level 2 Casework, and Level 3 Advocacy and Representation. Level 1 covers straightforward applications that rely on presenting facts against set criteria, including work visa applications for workers and employers. The IAA expects Level 1 advisers to have at least three months’ immigration advice experience, or six months of other advice work, plus up to date immigration law training, and applicants must pass competence assessments and a criminal record check. Having a solicitor review the work does not remove the need to register unless the work is done within an SRA or BSB regulated firm.

What are the penalties?

Section 91 makes it an offence to provide immigration advice or services in breach of section 84. The maximum penalty is six months’ imprisonment, a fine or both on summary conviction, and two years’ imprisonment, a fine or both on indictment. Where a company commits the offence with the consent or connivance of, or through neglect by, a director, manager or secretary, that officer is also guilty.

The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 gives the IAA further powers, including fines of up to £15,000 on regulated and unregulated advisers for compliance failures or giving unregulated advice. The IAA has said it will announce implementation and timescales separately, so check its current guidance before relying on either regime.

How might this look in practice?

Illustration only. A restaurant client holds a sponsor licence and is recruiting a chef from overseas. The firm runs payroll and acts as an additional Level 1 User.

Within scope: preparing the client’s accounts and payroll, explaining in general terms the salary records the business should keep, and administering its certificate allocation on the system on the director’s instructions.
Out of scope: telling the chef whether his qualifications meet the route requirements, completing his visa application, or writing to the Home Office on his behalf. The firm should refer him to a regulated adviser, or the employer can help him free of charge under its own exemption.

What mistakes do firms make?

Assuming a professional body practising certificate covers any advice to clients. It does not cover immigration advice.
Answering “will this be enough for my visa?” questions about a specific person.
Charging for immigration help on the basis that it is a small part of a wider fee. Fee or no fee, a business giving advice is caught.
Relying on the employer’s sponsor exemption for work the firm does itself.
Letting scope creep turn payroll support into visa casework. The wider picture of controlled work is in regulated vs unregulated accountants.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 19 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.