Refund from solicitors, what are my rights?
Discussion
My wife and I have the pleasure of dealing with the shark tank that is UK immigration law and solicitors.
We are trying to procure her spouse visa, and have been completely let down and misled by a firm.
We used UK Visa solutions, who on the surface seemed to be a self contained firm, paid them £750 up front to work on our behalf to complete and submit my wifes visa application.
They passed us onto a sub contracting firm (which we were never actually told about during the initial consultation, or after payment was made).
The firm that we ended up with were worse than useless, client care letter littered with errors, a document checklist that didn't even apply to our situation...and their communication was terrible, repeated failings to return our calls, and a useless case worker.
We decided to cut our losses before submitting documents to the firm and moving things any further forward. The sub contracted firm were rude and arrogant, and seemingly not listening to us from the outset.
Both the sub contracting firm and UK visa solutions are seemingly in the process of stonewalling us and fobbing me off, and it seems pretty clear that neither firm is interested in refunding the £750 paid...when i spoke to them I was treated pretty rudely, and told a woolly line that investigating would take a couple weeks, so my faith in them to refund is looking pretty thin.
This is new territory for me, thankfully paid by credit card, so have section 75 to fall back on hopefully. As far as the solicitors go, do they have any legal obligation to refund?
The only actual work they have carried out on our behalf so far is the inaccurate client care letter.
Do I wait out and see where this "investigation" leads, or pursue other avenues? If so any pointers as to where to go?
Applying for a spouse visa is stressful enough without having to deal with this, so i really want it done quickly, even happy to accept a partial refund just to walk away at this point.
We are trying to procure her spouse visa, and have been completely let down and misled by a firm.
We used UK Visa solutions, who on the surface seemed to be a self contained firm, paid them £750 up front to work on our behalf to complete and submit my wifes visa application.
They passed us onto a sub contracting firm (which we were never actually told about during the initial consultation, or after payment was made).
The firm that we ended up with were worse than useless, client care letter littered with errors, a document checklist that didn't even apply to our situation...and their communication was terrible, repeated failings to return our calls, and a useless case worker.
We decided to cut our losses before submitting documents to the firm and moving things any further forward. The sub contracted firm were rude and arrogant, and seemingly not listening to us from the outset.
Both the sub contracting firm and UK visa solutions are seemingly in the process of stonewalling us and fobbing me off, and it seems pretty clear that neither firm is interested in refunding the £750 paid...when i spoke to them I was treated pretty rudely, and told a woolly line that investigating would take a couple weeks, so my faith in them to refund is looking pretty thin.
This is new territory for me, thankfully paid by credit card, so have section 75 to fall back on hopefully. As far as the solicitors go, do they have any legal obligation to refund?
The only actual work they have carried out on our behalf so far is the inaccurate client care letter.
Do I wait out and see where this "investigation" leads, or pursue other avenues? If so any pointers as to where to go?
Applying for a spouse visa is stressful enough without having to deal with this, so i really want it done quickly, even happy to accept a partial refund just to walk away at this point.
Never trust a website that uses stock photos.. https://www.dreamstime.com/business-concept-portra...
HantsRat said:
Never trust a website that uses stock photos.. https://www.dreamstime.com/business-concept-portra...
You mean those aren’t people working there?
HantsRat said:
Never trust a website that uses stock photos..
Excellent advice:UK Visa Solutions -
Stock photo -
And no, they aren't solicitors, though it would be very easy to mistake their website for that of a firm of solicitors, particularly if you were an immigrant looking for a specialist solicitor. I'm sure that's entirely accidental.
Immigration law is a notoriously dodgy area of legal practice, and there are some real shysters out there. You can find a list of accredited immigration solicitors via the Law Society website - http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/
Edited by Pro Bono on Monday 13th August 23:09
Pro Bono said:
And no, they aren't solicitors, though it would be very easy to mistake their website for that of a firm of solicitors, particularly if you were an immigrant looking for a specialist solicitor. I'm sure that's entirely accidental.
Immigration law is a notoriously dodgy area of legal practice, and there are some real shysters out there. You can find a list of accredited immigration solicitors via the Law Society website - http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/
I agree. It is very carefully worded.Immigration law is a notoriously dodgy area of legal practice, and there are some real shysters out there. You can find a list of accredited immigration solicitors via the Law Society website - http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/
Even from the opening page, "Our trusted partner lawyers have helped people across the UK with their UK visa and immigration problems." and "All our UK Visa services are available across all major cities in the UK. Unlike other Lawyers who charge..."... but then switches to "Our Lawyers will work to achieve the best possible outcome and will guide and assist you throughout the whole process." and "If you decide to instruct us and join our growing list of satisfied customers you will be assigned to an experienced lawyer"
So are they lawyers, or not?
Their online reviews also look highly suspicious.
Evolved said:
HantsRat said:
Never trust a website that uses stock photos.. https://www.dreamstime.com/business-concept-portra...
You mean those aren’t people working there?Two of those slick and highly qualified professional types are having really bad hair days, but the one on the right is proper Mr Stare-ye-oot.
Quick close-out to this.
We eventually (8 weeks later) got a partial refund (£500 of the £750) back from the involved parties.
Turns out after a great deal of digging that one particular guy has been a director on both these two firms we got mixed up with, and one other that also has terrible reviews...so clearly a bigger immigration advice telesales scam going on. He is also listed as ex director on a number of now dissolved immigration and advice firms. Their London and Manchester offices are both "virtual", and everything ties back to one completely different "solicitor" firm in Manchester.
All in all, a costly lesson, but i have since been contacted by others that have lost money in the thousands, and had visa applications denied due to poor advice and work carried out...so we got lucky relatively speaking.
We ended up going with a different firm, making sure they were OISC accredited and doing our due diligence this time. Wife's visa was approved yesterday in croydon, with all going very smoothly.
We eventually (8 weeks later) got a partial refund (£500 of the £750) back from the involved parties.
Turns out after a great deal of digging that one particular guy has been a director on both these two firms we got mixed up with, and one other that also has terrible reviews...so clearly a bigger immigration advice telesales scam going on. He is also listed as ex director on a number of now dissolved immigration and advice firms. Their London and Manchester offices are both "virtual", and everything ties back to one completely different "solicitor" firm in Manchester.
All in all, a costly lesson, but i have since been contacted by others that have lost money in the thousands, and had visa applications denied due to poor advice and work carried out...so we got lucky relatively speaking.
We ended up going with a different firm, making sure they were OISC accredited and doing our due diligence this time. Wife's visa was approved yesterday in croydon, with all going very smoothly.
We paid the eye-watering extra fee (£700 odd) for the priority face to face appt in Croydon, as we are heading over to LA in December and going the standard route would have been a bit touch and go to have her visa approved and BRP back in time.
The standard application from submission to approval can take anything up to 8-12 weeks, plus however long it takes them to send the BRP out after that.
To be fair the priority system was a breeze, and they were pretty well organised. 8.20am appt, visa stamped and approved by 10:30am, BRP will arrive in the post in a weeks time.
EDIT - that said, if the other person is applying from outside the UK, then i'm not sure how priority appointments work...maybe at a local embassy? My wife already resided in the UK on a t4 student visa so was effectively switching to a FLR(M) visa as my spouse from here in the UK.
Sufficed to say though, any standard application takes a fair while.
The standard application from submission to approval can take anything up to 8-12 weeks, plus however long it takes them to send the BRP out after that.
To be fair the priority system was a breeze, and they were pretty well organised. 8.20am appt, visa stamped and approved by 10:30am, BRP will arrive in the post in a weeks time.
EDIT - that said, if the other person is applying from outside the UK, then i'm not sure how priority appointments work...maybe at a local embassy? My wife already resided in the UK on a t4 student visa so was effectively switching to a FLR(M) visa as my spouse from here in the UK.
Sufficed to say though, any standard application takes a fair while.
Edited by designforlife on Tuesday 9th October 13:22
Out of interest and not being judgemental... but how come you didn't do it yourself?
We just did the EEA2 visa via SS judgement (EU residency for non-EU citizens) loophole for my wife and did both the original FP and BRP ourselves. It really wasn't too bad, the biggest time sink was collecting together the necessary documentation paperwork, but you'd have to do this in any case. The Government's website is extremely clear on the process and what is required from you. I found it refreshingly simple compared to what I expected.
The most stressful part was the actual wait itself whilst home office made the decision. Thankfully we got the 5 year BRP first try.
We just did the EEA2 visa via SS judgement (EU residency for non-EU citizens) loophole for my wife and did both the original FP and BRP ourselves. It really wasn't too bad, the biggest time sink was collecting together the necessary documentation paperwork, but you'd have to do this in any case. The Government's website is extremely clear on the process and what is required from you. I found it refreshingly simple compared to what I expected.
The most stressful part was the actual wait itself whilst home office made the decision. Thankfully we got the 5 year BRP first try.
Nothing exciting really, mostly peace of mind - my wife had a conviction from the states from 11 years ago (DUI, all well past resolved now, but still on her record), and we didn't want that to cause any issues with the application, there were also a couple of things on the sponsorship side that needed the appropriate letters writing.
In hindsight, yeah we could have probably done it ourselves, but it was nice not having to worry about the application forms, we focused on the document side of things whilst juggling some other life challenges.
And once you are spending £2k odd on the visa/nhs fees/priority appt, another few hundred to an immigration advisor really didn't seem over the top.
In hindsight, yeah we could have probably done it ourselves, but it was nice not having to worry about the application forms, we focused on the document side of things whilst juggling some other life challenges.
And once you are spending £2k odd on the visa/nhs fees/priority appt, another few hundred to an immigration advisor really didn't seem over the top.
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