About us
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-16)

The Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) protects seekers of immigration advice through regulation, enforcement and promoting best practice.

Overview

This page provides an overview of the IAA’s role in regulating immigration advice, including our responsibilities, priorities, and the standards you can expect from us.

Who we are and what we do

Previously known as the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, we rebranded as the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) in January 2025.

The IAA protects seekers of immigration advice through regulation, enforcement and promoting best practice. We investigate complaints or concerns about advisers and have the authority to prosecute individuals operating illegally.

The IAA is a government body set up to ensure that immigration advice is only provided by suitably qualified organisations and individuals. We regulate over 3,700 individual immigration advisers and 2,000 organisations. To ensure high quality advice is readily available to advice seekers we promote good practice to immigration advisers, set standards and make sure those standards are upheld.

We license and regulate people who want to provide immigration advice to the general public (but not legal professionals such as solicitors and barristers who are already regulated by their own professional body). We also enforce the regulatory regime by investigating and, where appropriate, prosecuting those individuals who are providing immigration advice illegally.

Established under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/33/contents), Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/41/contents) and the Immigration Act 2014 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/22/contents/enacted), we have the authority to:
- limit or vary levels of work advisers may undertake
- lay a disciplinary charge against a regulated adviser
- apply for a restraining order or an injunction
- prosecute for illegally providing immigration advice and/or services
- prosecute for illegally advertising immigration advice and/or services
- enter an adviser’s premises
- seize an adviser’s records
All previous news and communications from the OISC can be found here (https://www.gov.uk/search/news-and-communications?organisations[]=office-of-the-immigration-services-commissioner&parent=office-of-the-immigration-services-commissioner).

Our responsibilities

Our main duties are to:
- assess and register individuals who want to become immigration advisers
- audit advisers to ensure professional standards are upheld
- manage and investigate complaints against immigration advisers
- take enforcement action against those offering immigration advice illegally
- oversee the regulation of immigration advice provided by solicitors and barristers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where legal systems differ
The IAA does not provide immigration advice or recommend or endorse any specific immigration adviser.

Our priorities

We aim to:
- ensure high-quality and reliable immigration advice is available to advice seekers from regulated professionals or bodies as needed
- routinely identify, investigate, and disrupt illegal advice-giving by unregulated individuals, with criminal prosecutions pursued when necessary to protect the integrity of the immigration system
- ensure advice seekers know how to access regulated advice and understand the risks of seeking advice from unregulated individuals
- transform the IAA into a high-performing organisation with the right culture, skills, people, and modernised processes
What you can expect from the IAA
- we will treat you with dignity and respect, and without discrimination or prejudice
- your information will be held securely and not shared without permission
- we’ll use your preferred communication method where possible and communicate in clear, plain language. If needed, we’ll arrange translation when possible
- for complaints, we’ll explain what we can do, outline processes and timelines, and keep you regularly updated. For more information on our processes and procedures, please visit the complaints page
- we will explain the reason for our decisions in writing to you
- we will publish details on how you can request a review of our complaint decisions (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oisc-complaints-scheme-2012)
- we will make it clear to you what we consider to be behaviour that is unacceptable towards our staff
- we will publish a list of organisations suspended or removed from our scheme
- we aim to reply to all queries within five working days to acknowledge receipt and ten for a full response
- if we can’t assist with your query or complaint, we will try to direct you to an organisation that can