Immigration Advice Service (Leeds) - Leeds

Kristina Angova

"Worst experience ever, do not waste your time and money here‘‘
I contacted IAS as I wanted to re-apply for my pre-settled status, as I had doubts that it might be revoked due to my absences. Upon contacting IAS, the first case worker I was assigned to Ligia, after neglecting my case and after I made an official complaint about her, she emailed me saying she is no longer working with IAS and I was assigned to another caseworker Nasreen. Thought that after my 1st complaint, I’ll be assigned to a professional and attentive caseworker, the joke was on me. Nasreen had been negligent, during our online meeting never concentrated, I had to chase her with emails and calls and she was negative and discoursing from the begging of my process. After continuing and chasing Nasreen, she finally told me that she has uploaded my application and promised in writing that on the next day, she’d upload the evidence I provided her with and my Cover Letter.
After waiting for 2 months, with no reply from the Home Office, I decided to call the Home Office and that’s when I heard the shocking news that I have no supporting evidence nor any Cover Letter uploaded. So what happened is I uploaded myself all the evidence and only after 2 days, I got a reply from the Home Office saying that I was granted Indefinite Leave to Remain.  So thanks to Nasreen, I wasted 2 months waiting for nothing.. After I complained again to IAS and told them that the Home Office had confirmed there was no supporting evidence, they did an ‘investigation’ saying Nasreen had done everything and absolutely neglected what the Home Office told me. So afterwards, I emailed Abigail again, as I wanted further investigation to be done, but IAS didn’t even bother to reply to my email. And I paid for all of this £1700 + what a shame..

Shaun Phillips

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.

Daria Tkacheva

My husband and I turned to IAS very close to my visa deadline. Our caseworker was Nasreen Ali. She was calm and confident, everything went smoothly, our application was sent on time and the case was approved within established timeframe. There were absolutely no issues and we would highly recommend the service to friends and family.

Zohar Katz

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.

Arun Kashyap

I consulted with IAS for my ILR application. My case was handled by Parminder Kaur. My situation was not straight forward but Pam did her research and advised about my case very well.
All my queries were answered on the day of my appointment. However, I had few more questions while filling the application and I arranged a call with Pam. All my questions were answered and I made an application with Home office for ILR and I was recently granted.
This is not an hourly charged service. If you have missed out any points during your appointment, you can always get back to your lawyer via phone of email and get clarification. I am completely satisfied with this service and would recommend to others.

craig MAK

Excellent service, Nasreen really guided us though the process. She was very knowledgeable and our visa application went through smoothly. Its a difficult process, But she was up to date with all the current changes and it was worth paying extra to get her to submit on our behalf. It made the experience stress free for us. Thankyou

Lucia Tomasso

An absolutely terrible experience. For your own good do not use this company. They are not interested what so ever in resolving very simple cases. The stress and anxiety we have been through because of this company’s complete and utter incompetence is shocking. This review is based on our experience at the London office. "Attended" by Lola Tinubu.

Jonny Millard

Fantastic service and great communication.
I recently used ISA for a visa application and Nasreen was great throughout the whole process. She was very attentive and professional in helping me every step of the way and took all the stress from me as it's a very stressful time.
I highly recommend ISA and Nasreen expecially and will be using there services again in the future. Again thank you Nasreen for the support and help you provided me.