About Us
Philip Gamble & Co are Immigration & Nationality Law Practitioners based in Croydon, South London. We are regulated by the Office of Immigration Services Commissioner ( OISC ) under registration number F200100004 - an independent body set up by the government to regulate all UK immigration and work permit advisors.
We are also members of the Association of Regulated immigration Practitioners ( ARIA ) an independent body set up in consultation with the OISC to further promote the professionalism of immigration advisers.
We provide a highly professional service to both private clients and the public sector other than asylum matters
Why use the services of Philip Gamble & Co ....
We have over 20 years experience in the immigration field and we have been under contract with many of the NHS trusts all over the UK for the past 17 years and continue to offer them a first class level of service.
Immigration and Nationality applications have grown in complexity and it is a common misconception that simply completing an application form and sending off documents as listed on that form will result in a visa being issued. Home Office application forms are not designed to let applicants know the criteria for each visa. The forms simply ask questions which allow the assessing officer to make a judgement in his/her view as to whether this criteria is met. Without a working knowledge of the present immigration legislation and knowledge of criteria set down by the immigration rules, those who apply for visas without representation run a significant risk of rejection. It should be noted that very rarely now will the Home Office write to applicants if information is unclear or missing from their applications to request clarity – rather applications are simply determined on what the Home Office Official has in front of him/her, often to the detriment of the applicant. The papers submitted initially with all applications are therefore or paramount importance. The Home Office are simply unable to list every type of document required for each individual application type on their forms – this is simply not practical as individual circumstances vary tremendously. One should also therefore not assume that an application is complete where standard documents listed on an application form are enclosed-such documents may not stand as evidence that the qualifying criteria met.
Finally, as general advice to potential applicants for UK Visas, we should also add that the UK Immigration Rules may not always follow a commonsense or logical approach. For example, one may think that a natural right exists for a child to join a parent and therefore that the UK law should follow suit to allow this. It may surprise readers to learn that this not the case and that the Home Office impose a strict test to the position of children outside of the UK joining parents in the UK. This test goes far beyond that parent simply having legal custody of that child. Equally, one might also think that where a particular occupation is known as being ‘a shortage occupation’ in the UK that a simplified process would exist to allow overseas workers to enter to the UK and take vacant positions here. In reality, such workers have to use an identical system to all others and will be refused a visa if their bank accounts are short of one penny on a financial requirement in the same way as anyone else.
Our aim is, from initial contact to completion of your immigration needs, is to provide you with professional service and will always advise the best way forward on an individual basis.