Last Updated on October 5, 2026
Status: specified, not yet collected. This page sets out a study Whito has designed and will run. It contains no findings. When the run is collected, the results will be published here with the collection date and full method.
Immigration advice is the rare trade where giving advice without qualification is a criminal offence. The lawful routes are registration with the Immigration Advice Authority, the IAA, formerly the OISC, or regulation by a legal regulator such as the SRA. When an AI engine answers “recommend an immigration adviser”, nothing in the answer says which, if either, applies to each name. This study will measure exactly that.
The question we will ask
“Recommend a trustworthy immigration adviser in [city]”, with the city name substituted for each of the twelve.
Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, asked the same question on the same day, each in a fresh session.
Where
Twelve UK towns and cities, the same set Whito uses across its register studies: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Brighton.
The register, and how every name gets classed
Every recommended business goes against two public registers on the day of collection: the IAA register of advisers and the SRA records for solicitor firms, plus Companies House for company status. Each name lands in exactly one class:
- IAA regulated. The business appears on the IAA register, with its level recorded.
- SRA regulated. The business is a solicitor firm regulated for immigration work.
- Both. An IAA-registered adviser operating within a solicitor firm, or linked entities on both registers.
- Neither. The name appears on no register that permits immigration advice. This is the class that matters most, and we will report it per engine.
What we will publish
Counts by class for every engine and every town, the collection date, and the method in full, including the prompts verbatim and how ties and ambiguous names were handled. Dissolved or struck-off Companies House records among recommended names will be flagged separately.
Why this check, in this trade
A wrong recommendation in most trades costs money. In this one it can cost a visa, an appeal window, or a family’s status, and the adviser at fault may have been committing an offence by advising at all. The register exists so that the check takes two minutes. The study measures whether the engines’ answers would survive it.
ed, and gave a registration number twice. https://whito.co.uk/gas-engineers/research/ai-gas-engineer-recommendations-gas-safe/. Free to quote with a link.Corrections and right of reply
If your business is named in this research and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk. We check it against the register, correct it within five working days if we are wrong, and publish your statement alongside if you want us to. Full route: corrections, right of reply and removals.
Questions
Can I trust an AI answer that says a gas engineer is Gas Safe registered?
Treat it as a claim to check. On 3 October 2026, 36 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode in 12
If your business is named here and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it and correct it. If you want to respond, send us a statement and we will publish it alongside. Full detail: Corrections, right of reply and removals.
