Our aim

We aim to offer our clients quality legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost. As a start, we hope it is helpful to you to set out in this statement the basis on which we will provide our professional services.

Our commitment to you

We will:

• REPRESENT your interests and keep your business confidential.
• EXPLAIN to you the legal work which may be required and the prospects of a successful outcome.
• KEEP YOU regularly informed of progress or, if there is none, when you are next likely to hear from us.
• TRY to avoid using technical legal language when writing to you – tell us when we fail in this aim!
• DEAL with your queries promptly, for example, we will always try to return your telephone calls on the same day.

Fees

• For most immigration services we operate a fixed fee arrangement.  We will provide you with an estimate of our likely fee and agree that fee with you in advance of any work commencing.
• For complex or unusual matters, we may calculate our charges by reference to the time actually spent by the consultants in respect of any work which they do on your behalf. This will include meetings with you and perhaps others, reading and working on papers, correspondence, preparation of any detailed costs calculations, and time spent travelling away from the office when this is necessary.
• In certain circumstances we may require you to pay the fee, or part of the fee, in advance of work commencing.
• consultants have to pay out various other expenses on behalf of clients ranging from visa application fees to courier costs and experts’ fees and so on.  We refer to such payments generally as “disbursements”.  You must reimburse us for disbursements incurred in respect of your matter.  We have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose.
• If, for any reason, your matter does not proceed to completion, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and expenses incurred.
• All fees and disbursements (where appropriate) are subject to VAT.

Our hours of business

• Our normal office hours are between 9.00 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. on weekdays. Messages can be left on our voicemail outside those hours and we will attempt to return all calls on the same day.

People responsible for your work

• We will always notify you of the name and position of the individual who will handle your application.  We will try to avoid changing the people who handle your work but if this cannot be avoided, we will tell you promptly of any change and why it may be necessary.
• The partners have final responsibility for any work done by the firm.

Payment arrangements

• Payment is due to us at the commencement of all the work carried out. Payment is only accepted in the form of Fees are due in advance. Cheque, cash, postal and money orders, and bankers draft are accepted. Debit and Credit cards are not accepted.

Termination

• You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incurring charges and expenses on your behalf, you must tell us this clearly in writing.
• If we decide to stop acting for you, for example, if you do not pay an interim bill or comply with the request for a payment on account, we will tell you the reason and give you notice in writing.

Limited companies

• When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company, we may require a director to provide a copy of his passport and the company’s most recent audited accounts in order that we can satisfy current money laundering legislation.

Individuals

• When accepting instructions on behalf of an individual, we may require a copy of the individual’s passport and a recent utility bill in his or her name in order that we can satisfy current money laundering legislation.

Communication between you and us

• Our aim is to offer all our clients an efficient and effective service at all times. We are proud of the service we provide and our clients and our staff are of first importance to us. We hope that you will be pleased with the work we do for you. However, should there be any aspect of our service with which you are unhappy, please raise your concern in the first place with the individual handling your file.  If you still have queries or concerns, please contact consultant Parminder Singh.
• We will aim to communicate with you by such a method as you may request. We may need to virus-check disks or e-mail. Unless you withdraw consent, we will communicate with others when appropriate by e-mail or fax but we cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence and documents sent by e-mail or fax.
• The Data Protection Act requires us to advise you that your particulars are held on our database. We may, from time to time, use these details to send you information which we think might be of interest to you.  We will not supply your details to anyone else other than in connection with your immigration affairs or such other matter as you may instruct us.

Terms and conditions of business

• Unless otherwise agreed, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.
• Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business, it may not be possible for us to start work on your behalf until one copy of them has been returned to us for us to keep on our file.