Marketing for immigration advisers
Ask an AI engine for an immigration adviser and it hands back one list with three different things in it: advisers regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority, solicitors regulated by the SRA, and consultants regulated by nobody. Giving immigration advice without being qualified is a criminal offence, yet the answers rarely say which is which. If you are registered, making that difference visible is your whole marketing strategy.
The right order for immigration advisers
Do the stages in order. Nothing in Build works while Start is missing.
Start, Build, Scale for immigration advisers: the free foundations first, then systems and proof, then measurement.
Start
- IAA registration number, level and the IAA register link in plain text on every page
- A plain sentence saying whether you are an IAA adviser or an SRA solicitor
- Fee structure published: fixed fees where you offer them, hourly where you do not
Build
- One page per visa route you actually handle, each naming your level
- Reviews asked for by text after each case closes, naming the route
- A same-day reply route: immigration deadlines do not wait
Scale
- Track enquiries to cases won by route
- Referral relationships with solicitors for work above your level
- Drop the routes that bring enquiries you cannot take
What we know, and what we have not measured yet
Whito has not yet run a study on this trade, so this page quotes no adviser prices and no invented findings. The figures above are register facts and our cross-industry work. The first immigration adviser study is specified in the research stub below: the same request in 12 UK cities, every name classed as IAA regulated, SRA regulated, both, or neither, with dissolved Companies House records flagged.
What we can already say from the registers: the IAA, formerly the OISC, regulates immigration advisers in three levels, solicitors advise under the SRA, and a Companies House number proves a company exists, not that anyone in it may lawfully give immigration advice.
The wider picture across every industry we track is in the UK AI Visibility Index.
Whito need-to-know for immigration advisers
- Unqualified advice is a criminal offence. That is the sharpest fact in the trade, and almost nobody puts it on a website. The firms that state their registration plainly borrow its full force.
- A company number is not a registration. Plenty of consultancies show a Companies House number and nothing else. The customer who knows the difference is exactly the customer worth winning.
- Your level is a claim customers can check. IAA levels 1 to 3 limit what you may take on. Naming your level and linking the register entry turns a regulatory duty into proof.
- AI answers flatten the trade. Engines list advisers, solicitors and unregulated consultants side by side. Until they learn the difference, your pages have to teach it.
Why registered advisers lose work to unregulated lookalikes
One list, three trades
The engines answer “immigration adviser near me” with IAA advisers, SRA solicitors and unregulated consultants mixed together, ranked by visibility rather than by who may lawfully act.
The company-number costume
An unregulated consultancy with a Companies House number looks registered to most customers, and to most engines. Incorporation is not authorisation.
Level-blind recommendations
An engine will happily send an asylum appeal to a level 1 adviser who cannot take it. Nothing in the answer carries the level.
What actually works
Six things, in rough order of return.
State your register, in the first sentence
“Regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority, registration number in the footer of every page.” One sentence does more than any badge.
Name your level and what it means
Level 1, 2 or 3 in plain English, with one line on what you may and may not take on. Honesty about limits reads as competence.
Publish your fee structure
Fixed fees for the routes that suit them, hourly for the rest. Immigration customers are quoted wildly varying numbers; structure calms them.
One page per visa route
Spouse visas, skilled worker, settlement: each route is its own search, its own worry, its own page, each carrying your registration line.
Teach the IAA check
A short page showing customers how to check any adviser on the register. The firm that teaches the check is the firm that passes it.
Reviews that name the route
“Handled my settlement application, kept every deadline” beats five anonymous stars. Ask when the decision letter arrives.
Quick wins this week
Add the register line today
Your IAA number, your level, and a link to your register entry, on every page footer.
Write the three-trades paragraph
Four sentences on your homepage: who the IAA regulates, who the SRA regulates, and who is regulated by nobody.
Publish one fixed fee
Pick your most common route and publish an honest fixed fee for it, with what it includes.
Common mistakes
Hiding behind “OISC” alone
The regulator renamed itself the Immigration Advice Authority in 2025. A site that only says OISC looks unmaintained to customers and to engines; say IAA, formerly OISC, and link the register.
Claiming “regulated” without the number
On this register the word is checkable in minutes, and the check needs your registration number. The claim without the number reads like the consultants who cannot show one.
Taking enquiries above your level
A level 1 adviser marketing appeal work invites the one complaint that ends a registration. Market the level you hold and refer the rest.
The Immigration Advice Authority. Two registers decide who may act.
Immigration advice in the UK may only be given by advisers registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, formerly the OISC, or by lawyers regulated by bodies such as the SRA. The IAA register is public and records each adviser’s level. Giving immigration advice without qualification is a criminal offence. For a registered adviser this is not paperwork, it is the one claim no unregulated consultant can copy.
Every guide and study for immigration advisers
3 guides · 1 study specified, not yet collected. All free.
Ready to be the one they can check?
See what search and AI engines can read on your site. Seventeen checks, about twenty seconds, no email, no sales call. Then list your business free in the Whito directory. Money cannot buy either.
Looking for an adviser instead?
Check any adviser on the IAA register before you pay, and any solicitor on the SRA register. The Whito directory lists businesses with the details you can check yourself.
Listings are free and money cannot buy placement.