Case studies

Penningtons' immigration team has achieved a successful outcome for a college which had its Highly Trusted Status application refused. The UKBA's initial reason for refusal was that 'the college had failed to meet the criteria because 5% of students who enrolled failed to complete their course'. Penningtons managed to obtain clarification from the UKBA of the decision making process and also a list of students that the UKBA alleged had failed to complete their course.

Penningtons' immigration team has achieved an outstanding result for a college which recently had its tier 2 and tier 4 sponsor licences revoked. We were instructed by the college the day after it received the revocation notices. Pat Saini, partner, and Sabina Ali, case manager, worked together on the matter. Sabina Ali conducted an urgent assessment of the college, whilst Pat Saini instructed counsel and prepared an application for judicial review proceedings, which included an application for interim relief.

We received a call from a panicked investment banker who was due to be made redundant the following week. He had been offered a new position in one of his friend's companies in London but the company did not possess a sponsor licence.

A UK film company had been commissioned to produce a short clip of London's New Year's Eve celebrations for an international film distributor. Shortly before the date filming was due to commence, the film company sought to complete work permit applications for two essential, highly specialist cameramen working out of the US.

Our client, a media organisation, was employing a journalist under the now abolished overseas broadcaster scheme. Due to the nature of her work, it was highly inconvenient to our client for the employee to return to Australia purely to file a tier 1 (general) application.

We were contacted by a large publishing business which was unhappy with the advice it had received from two other immigration service providers about an employee whose lawful employment in the UK was based on his marriage to an EEA national.

We received instructions from a multi-national client who used a well known mass volume immigration service provider to secure standard work permissions for employees. However, on this occasion the client required a specific solution in relation to a relatively junior relative of one of the board members who had been promised work experience within the organisation. They had been advised that this was impossible due to the abolition of the TWES scheme.

Our client received civil penalty notices to the value of £45,000 through the post from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) for alleged employment of six illegal workers.

The Association of Bermuda International Companies consulted our immigration team over its attempts to persuade the Bermudian Government to drop a controversial policy imposing a maximum term for work permits.

We were instructed by the UK head office of a major company which sponsored several migrants to work in executive level roles. The sponsor had recently learned that its sponsor licence had been revoked on mandatory grounds due to non-compliance and that, accordingly, the leave to remain of key team members had been curtailed. Penningtons' immigration team, led by partner Pat Saini, acted immediately to liaise with senior contacts at the Home Office and made representations that the revocation should be temporarily reduced to a suspension and the existing sponsored migrants’ leave be reinstated while the matter was being considered.

We were approached by a large, international, foreign-based engineering company which was not happy with the advice it had received from two other immigration service providers in relation to whether its corporate group structure permitted intra-company transfers to its operations in the UK.

The policy holder was on board a flight to the US when he was taken seriously ill. On landing he was transferred to hospital where he was treated for a pulmonary embolism. A claim in excess of £70,000 was later submitted to the insurer for medical and repatriation expenses.