UK immigration law advice for businesses

Our immigration solicitors work with businesses across a wide range of sectors who trust our expert immigration lawyers to help them achieve their immigration-related objectives. Clients include many national and multi-billion-pound listed multinationals drawn from a wide range of sectors, professional services firms and medium sized businesses.

Our immigration solicitors advise employers on business immigration-related areas that include:

• Skilled Worker visa applications
• Global Business Mobility visas: Senior or Specialist Worker, Innovator Founder, UK Expansion Worker, etc.
• Advice on applying for applying for sponsor licences, sponsored visas, and compliance with sponsorship regimes
• Immigration audits and compliance training for businesses
• Standard visitor visas and lawful business visits
• Dependants’ visas and immigration appeals
• Immigration aspects of mergers and acquisitions
• Immigration aspects of administrations and insolvencies
• Distressed business immigration matters, including where the Home Office is trying to revoke or suspend a sponsor licence or curtail sponsored visas

Our team offers:

Added confidence

We have been independently ranked as one of the leading business immigration legal teams in London and the UK for well over a decade. All of our immigration lawyers are legal directory ranked or recognised. This gives you added confidence that we are a good choice to help you achieve the immigration related outcomes you want.

Success rate

There are many grounds on which sponsor licence and visa applications can be refused. These include a failure to meet the eligibility requirements set out in the Immigration Rules and/or separate Home Office guidance. Our immigration solicitors help you to navigate these complexities and have a high success rate with business immigration applications.

Speed and insight

Sometimes you might need applications to the Home Office to be processed faster than standard processing times, and where there is no official mechanism to speed up such applications. Our immigration law solicitors are adept at 'speeding up' Home Office processing times for employers that we work with. We have often had applications, which can take between 8 - 18 weeks to process, approved within just a few working days by using creative and persuasive legal arguments.

Personal approach

We understand that immigration is intensely personal, even for businesses, and we reflect this in our advice and approach.

Trusted by a very wide range of organisations

We work with businesses across a wide range of industry sectors who trust us to help them achieve their immigration related objectives in the UK.

Immigration know-how

Our immigration lawyers deliver business immigration law training to other leading law firms and The Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) through talks and events. We have written immigration articles for legal publications such as Corporate Counsel, Corporate International, Lawyer Monthly, Global Legal Post, Tolley's Employment Law and the International Bar Association's Immigration and Nationality Newsletter and also provided expert commentary on immigration law developments for national publications such as The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and Personnel Today.

In retail, Brexit and evolving immigration restrictions have intensified staffing challenges, particularly with the transition toward multi-channel sales and compliance for high-turnover employees. Our immigration solicitors support retail businesses by providing UK immigration law guidance that addresses these complexities.

Key immigration services for retail businesses 

• Managing cost risks and immigration compliance risks for retailers with a high turnover of sponsored staff
• Advising retailers on minimum salary requirements for sponsored employees with irregular/changing work hours under different job occupation/SOC codes
• Helping to ensure immigration compliance in the context of redundancies and sponsored staff of brick-and-mortar retailers changing work location (e.g. working from home)
• Providing e-commerce retailers with the immigration capability to sponsor workers
• Helping retailers hire overseas talent for roles that are in short supply in this sector, such as specialist chefs
• Managing high-volume sponsored worker visa applications for larger retailers
• Managing immigration compliance risks for retailers with multiple sites and/or subsidiaries
• Representing retailers faced with Home Office compliance visits
• Providing training to retailers on immigration compliance and right to work checks
• Advising retailers on post-Brexit UK immigration recruitment policies to help manage their UK labour-forces
• Helping multinational retailers to deploy overseas employees to the UK, including technical experts and management

Example cases

• EU-based retailer: advising a large EU-based retailer on a full range of UK immigration matters, including advising on visa applications, Certificates of Sponsorship and ongoing compliance support
• Multinational food business: advising a well-known US-based multinational food business on bringing specialist staff from Europe to the UK
• EU logistics business: advising one of the largest EU logistics businesses, with significant operations in the retail sector, in setting up its UK operations from a UK immigration perspective
• Multi-billion-dollar US luxury goods business: advising a multi-billion-dollar US luxury goods business on expanding its UK operations, including by use of dozens of visas for non-UK staff
• Hospitality business: advising a successful hospitality business in central London on sponsoring workers from Asia

Our financial services clients benefit from expertise at the intersection of immigration law and compliance with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requirements. This alignment ensures a seamless approach to managing regulatory and immigration needs.

Key immigration services for financial services businesses

• advising on the intersection between compliance with UK immigration law and compliance with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requirements
• helping to ensure your business is fully compliant with UK immigration law and identifying immigration risk factors that may leave your organisation open to regulatory scrutiny from the Home Office and FCA
• providing advice at each stage of the immigration process if you are an overseas financial services business wanting to expand your business operations into the UK by transferring existing non-UK staff to create and then expand a UK footprint
• providing your business with transactional immigration advice on business restructuring and mergers and acquisitions involving sponsor licences and staff holding sponsored visas
• managing the UK immigration needs of your existing global offices, including non-UK staff being posted to the UK
• dovetailing our immigration advice with advice from a broad network of professional service providers, including employment, M&A/corporate and regulatory lawyers and accountants
• advising fin-tech entrepreneurs and start-ups with their UK immigration needs

Example cases

• US investment management firm: advising on immigration aspects of its expansion into the UK, including obtaining an A-rated sponsor licence and sponsored visas for the principal and over a dozen staff
• UK private equity firm: advising a on complying with complex immigration requirements arising from adding to its portfolio a leading UK business (that housed sponsored workers) via a TUPE transfer
• US hedge fund: advising on compliance with its UK immigration obligations in the course of winding down its UK operations
• Swiss hedge fund: advising on obtaining sponsored visas for key staff and complying with sponsorship duties
• Leading overseas pension fund: advising on immigration aspects of its expansion into the UK
• Leading investment management firm: advising a US owner-founder on relocating and expanding business operations of his leading investment management firm into the UK

The energy and infrastructure sector’s drive to meet decarbonisation goals poses unique immigration challenges. Our immigration solicitors offer expert immigration law advice to support hiring specialised talent, rapid deployment for energy projects, and compliance for offshore operations.

Key immigration services for energy and infrastructure businesses

• ensuring your business has the immigration capability to hire overseas talent in specialised roles such as engineers, construction workers and production managers and ensure rapid deployment on your UK energy and infrastructure projects
• providing advice on immigration compliance relating to offshore staff working on oil rigs, support vessels or other infrastructural platforms in UK waters
• giving you the immigration know-how to ensure a smooth transit of your energy / infrastructure sector workers through UK territory
• helping you to deploy overseas contractors to the UK for short-term projects in compliance with UK immigration law
• advising offshore wind farms on UK immigration solutions following the end of the Home Office’s Offshore Wind Worker Concession in 2022
• helping your business weather the post-Brexit impacts on your UK labour force
• navigating the Home Office’s visitor rules to allow contractors and sub-contractors to carry out essential maintenance work in the UK. 

Example cases

• One of the UK’s largest energy suppliers: advising on a major restructuring exercise requiring wide-ranging immigration advice as it impacted on numerous sponsor licences and a large number of sponsored staff
• A leading British energy conglomerate: advising on sponsoring highly specialised process engineers to work on its oil refinery
• A leading UK energy business: advising on bringing contractors to the UK for crucial maintenance work on its refinery machinery by finding a solution within the UK visitor rules, which allowed the contractors to carry out key activities in the UK without requiring sponsored work visas
• A leading energy company: advising a on obtaining a sponsor licence to hire niche talent in the UK, which it believed could only be found in the Middle East
• Specialist environmental safety consultancy: obtaining a sponsored employment visa for the new CEO of one of the UK’s leading energy companies 

Our immigration team’s deep knowledge and experience of the tech sector means our immigration solicitors are able to meet the particular UK immigration related needs of businesses from right across the technology sector, including software, telecoms, technology hardware, e-commerce, fintech, healthtech, cybersecurity and semiconductor businesses.

Key immigration services for tech businesses

• obtaining sponsorship-based visas for software engineers, developers and IT professionals
• obtaining Global Talent, High Potential Individual (HPI) and Innovator Founder visas for owner/manager entrepreneurs who do not qualify for sponsorship based visas
• Senior or Specialist Worker (Global Business Mobility) visas for employees based overseas who cannot meet the English language requirement associated with Skilled Worker visas
• advising on how your tech business and its sponsor licence can be optimally positioned and structured to be able to rapidly and reliably hire non-British tech workers in the UK
• assisting tech businesses with applying for a sponsor licence from the Home Office
• providing training and support on complying with sponsorship duties
• immigration advice on how to safely use the UK’s standard visitor visa category for limited business related trips to the UK

Example cases

• Leading UK tech company: our immigration solicitors advised on how to comply with Home Office requirements flowing from its sale to a “household name” business in the UK, including applying for a new sponsor licence, complying with complex Home Office rules on business sales, visa support and our solicitors also provided training on sponsorship duties for its HR team
• Multibillion dollar US based fintech company: our immigration solicitors advised on UK immigration aspects of a multibillion dollar acquisition of our client’s business by another US Fintech company. Our advice was central to the UK element of the acquisition, including helping our client understand steps it would need to take to ensure compliance with niche Home Office rules relating to corporate transactions, and thereby retain its sponsor licence and avoid prejudicing many sponsored staff in the UK
• Multibillion dollar publicly listed US tech company: our immigration solicitors advised on UK immigration related issues relating to the proposed hire of a senior Brazil national in the UK and worked with leading immigration lawyers overseas given various complex cross-border immigration issues
• Leading multinational technology investment firm: our immigration solicitors advised on what business activities numerous non-executive directors could and could not lawfully undertake whilst in the UK on standard visitor visas and provided best practice advice to help our client’s NEDs avoid inadvertently breaching the UK’s prevention of illegal working regime in the course of attending Board meetings in the UK
• Leading software company in the US: our immigration solicitors advised on applying for and structuring this client’s new sponsor licence, obtaining sponsorship based visas for its employees and complying with sponsorship duties
• Leading UK tech company: our immigration solicitors obtained an extension to a Home Office deadline to give this client additional time it needed to submit a valid sponsor licence application following its sale

Healthcare businesses face specific challenges, such as labour shortages and complex compliance needs and tightening of some of the Immigration Rules for this sector. Our immigration solicitors provide UK immigration support tailored to healthcare providers, from visa management to compliance with sponsorship obligations.

Key immigration services for healthcare businesses 

• advising on recruiting and retaining non-UK healthcare workers
• advising on the legal, administrative and cost-side implications of sponsoring non-UK healthcare workers
• helping you stay compliant with UK immigration law and myriad sponsorship duties in the face of increased scrutiny by the Home Office
• managing high volume applications for sponsored Health and Care Worker visas
• advising you on the full spectrum of immigration law issues when it comes to mitigating the effects/costs of a potentially high turnover of sponsored workers
• sponsor licence revocation, suspension, downgrading, sponsor action plans, and compliance audits by the Home Office
• providing you with training and resources to assist with achieving immigration compliance and mock compliance audits to help prepare you for a Home Office compliance visit
• advising on your sponsorship reporting obligations and ways to mitigate any historic immigration breaches
• representing you if the Home Office alleges your healthcare business has breached its sponsorship duties and/or commence enforcement action

Example cases 

• Healthcare business: advising a large healthcare business, which sponsored hundreds of workers for visas, on immigration compliance matters after the business identified a potential breach of UK immigration law, which resulted in no adverse action being taken against the business by the Home Office
• World-renowned pharmaceutical company: advising one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world on a full range of UK immigration advice, including advice relating to visa applications, Certificates of Sponsorship, ongoing compliance with sponsorship duties etc
• Leading hospital services trust: advised a leading NHS trust on avoiding potentially serious risks from an immigration perspective, including risks to its sponsor licence, following discovery it was employing someone who did not have permission to work in the UK
• Leading healthcare business: advising a leading healthcare business on a wide ranging and highly complex reorganisation involving the transfer of hundreds of sponsor workers from multiple sponsor licences onto one new sponsor licence

Recent independent directory comments about our immigration team or our immigration solicitors include:

“A sought-after firm by financial services companies, multinational energy conglomerates, international law firms and SMEs”
The Legal 500 (2025)

“strong track record of supporting sponsor licence applications”
Chambers UK (2025)

“frequently represents clients in the utilities sector, as well as fintech and private equity firms
Chambers UK (2025)

“highly regarded by businesses across various industries for their proficiency in UK immigration matters”
The Legal 500 (2025)

“The group is particularly capable of assisting clients on the immigration law implications of corporate transactions”
The Legal 500 (2025)

“advises across a broad range of industries, including healthcare, energy, tech, finance and media”
The Legal 500 (2025)

“strong track record of supporting sponsor licence applications”
Chambers UK (2024)

“frequently represents clients in the utilities sector, as well as fintech and private equity firms”
Chambers UK (2024)

“particular experience in handling immigration mandates for national and international corporates”
The Legal 500 (2024)

“undertakes complex work for … those seeking to establish start-ups”
The Legal 500 (2024)

“has been a consistently reliable and responsive partner for immigration matters”, “an absolute wonder to work with”, “superb client-handling skills and makes everything run smoothly by being very organised” and “very astute”
Chambers UK (2025)

“wonderfully helpful and walked us through the whole process from start to finish”, “very knowledgeable and professional”, “The immigration team at Russell Cooke London is highly regarded by businesses across various industries for their proficiency in UK immigration matters”, “Great team, great support”
The Legal 500 (2025)

“standout presence in immigration law”, “Great knowledge and attention to clients needs” and “outstandingly professional, well-organised and empathetic with clients”
Chambers UK (2024)

“client service and general level of service is very strong”, “service levels and responsiveness are very strong”, “incredibly responsive”, “exceptional in explaining processes to us”, “excels in all areas of UK business immigration law” and “ability to deliver to budget and provide overall value for money is strong”
Chambers UK (2024)