Guidance

Who are the OISC and what do we do?

Published 20 August 2019

1. What do we do?

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), is a Government body set up to ensure that immigration advice is only provided by suitably qualified organisations and individuals. It does this by licensing and regulating 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.

Want to find an adviser in your area? Visit our adviser finder.

OISC advisers are based in every corner of the United Kingdom. They normally specialise in immigration or asylum work and therefore provide a viable alternative to Solicitors and Barristers. They are regulated at different levels and in different areas of work, so you can select an adviser who meets your specific needs depending on the complexity of your problem. For more information on the different levels and areas of work OISC advisers can operate in, visit Finding and Using an OISC Regulated Organisation.

We set the standards that both the organisations as a whole and those individuals working there must follow.

All organisations are granted a licence that is valid for a year. The only exception is organisations which are authorised to work only on the new EU Settlement Scheme, where a licence is granted for 2 years. Every regulated organisation must apply for that licence to be renewed. If we feel that it is necessary to protect the public, we will take that licence away from organisations and they will no longer be able to provide immigration advice and services. You can find a complete list of the organisations we regulate here.

We regularly audit regulated organisations to make sure they are meeting our standards. As well as this, we provide guidance to regulated organisations to help them understand our standards and how best they can meet them.

About to visit an OISC adviser? Have a look at our guide to Getting the Best from Your Adviser.

Our job is to make sure that the people giving you immigration advice, have the legal knowledge and are providing the level of service that meets your requirements.

We also investigate complaints about those organisations we regulate as well as those individuals who provide immigration advice without being regulated. For more information on the dangers of unregulated advice, as well as how we investigate both types of complaints, please visit here.

2. What we don’t do?

• We cannot talk to the Home Office on your behalf about issues relating to either your or anybody else’s immigration status or any outstanding applications.

• Nor do we share any information with the Home Office concerning the immigration status of individuals.

• We cannot give you immigration advice, or recommend a specific adviser for you.

• We cannot deal with complaints about solicitors or barristers. If your complaint relates to an immigration matter, but does not relate to OISC regulated advisers, we will refer the complaint on to the appropriate body.

• We don’t deal with issues relating to the issue of British passports, or emigrating from the UK.

• We don’t regulate immigration advice provided outside the UK.

• We can’t investigate a complaint where too much time has passed, although we will check that for you.

• We cannot force an organisation to give you your money back, although we can recommend it. Usually organisations will comply with our recommendations for a refund, if they do not, we can take your case to the Immigration Services Tribunal, who do have the power to force refunds. Should an organisation ignore our recommendations, we can/do take this into account when deciding on an organisation’s application for re-registration For more information on what we can and cannot do, see our list of FAQs