Parveen worked in the Home Office for 9 years. She worked in the Immigration & Nationality Directorate in Croydon. Her work as a caseworker included interviewing applicants, considering cases and making decisions. During this time she was lucky enough to learn what life is like on the other side of the fence as a Visa Officer when she was seconded to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office as a Entry Clearance Officer in Mumbai, India, where she dealt with all types of entry clearance (visa) applications, including visitors, family visitors, business, work permit holders, dependents of work permit holders, students, dependents of students, settlement cases, fianc?, marriage, dependent children, dependent parents and even EEA family permits. So before coming to private practice, she had a big advantage because she has experience of how the Home Office works and how Home Office caseworkers consider cases. She also has the benefit of having worked as a visa officer so she knows how a visa officer considers cases. Parveen also trained and qualified to Level 2 OISC under Robert Tuff. She now works as an Immigration Consultant for Peter Horada & Co Solicitors. The supervising Principal is Peter Horada who has many years experience as a solicitor. “At Peter Horada & Co I deal with all types of immigration cases, from applications under the Points Based System, Company Registrations for Sponsor Licence, issue of Sponsorship Certificates, Entry Clearance / Visa applications at British Embassies where the applicant is abroad and for further leave / visa applications to the UK Border Agency (Home Office) where the applicant is already in the UK.” explained Parveen. “I enjoy my work because of the variety of cases that you can come across from student visa application to post study work to entrepreneurs with ?200,000 available for investment in the UK. , work permit (sponsor certificate and Tier 2 applications) to inter company transfers, to investment applications and persons of independent means. I have dealt with all types of cases for members of the Thai community from extensions for work permits to changes to work permits, indefinite leave / permanent residence after completing 5 years, Student visa applications, Post Study Work applications, Tier 2 and Tier 1 applications, Marriage applications, Dependent applications, Work permit holders, students or permanent residents sponsoring their dependent child to join them in the UK.” added Parveen. Under the Points Based System any business that wants to employ skilled overseas (non European national) workers are required to first Register their business with the UK Border Agency Home Office and obtain a Sponsors Licence. She said “I can advise and assist the business on the supporting documents that they require and to ensure that all their compliance systems are in place before making the application to register the business. Once the business has been registered it is then able to issue Sponsor Certificates (which have replaced work permits) for overseas employees if they meet the points requirement, which includes the applicants qualifications, skills, financial, maintenance requirements and English language requirements as well as the Resident Labour, test where applicable. I get a great deal of job satisfaction when I help people with their case. I give that extra time to clients to listen to them and understand their cases before advising them.” Her advice to the Thai community and i- ASiA readers for their immigration needs is “Don’t leave it to the last minute, seek advice well in advance, arrange a consultation to check what the requirements will be for your particular application and be aware of the documents that you will need to support your application. We can arrange a Thai interpreter for our clients if needed and if any documents require translation we can arrange the translation from Thai to English” Students hoping to switch to Tier 1 General Post Study Work or Tier 2 General need to be certain that their Degrees are recognised Work permit holders need to be aware that while there are transitional arrangements for extending their visa’s with the employer that they have existing work permit approval for, if they change to a new employer they will need to meet the requirements under Tier 2 of the Points Based System, which includes English language and maintenance. Take advice before you make these important decisions in your life. The most common cases which Parveen has dealt with are as follows: During August and September for immigration consultations with Parveen, i-ASiA Magazine readers can benefit from a half price initial consultation (which is a saving of more than ?50). Here are some of Parveen Clients: KIKU Restaurant Thai Limited Patara Korporn Mr and Mrs Smith Pragnat Parveen Mahmood Peter Horada & Co |