Check the Papers

How to check that an immigration adviser is allowed to advise you?

Immigration advice in the UK is regulated. Not everyone offering it is entitled to give it, and the register that settles the question is public and free to search. This page is about how to search it. It is not immigration advice, and this site does not give any. Read on 26 August 2026.

What to do before you pay anyone?

Get the adviser’s name and the name of their organisation in writing.Find them in the IAA adviser finder. Search the organisation as well as the person.Check what they are registered to do. Registration is by level, and someone registered at one level is not thereby entitled to handle everything.If they say they are a solicitor or barrister instead, they should appear on their own profession’s public register.

How to read a register entry?

Status. “Available to learners” or “no longer awarded”. This is the field that matters most and the one nobody quotes at you.Awarding organisation. The body that issues the certificate. It is regulated; the course provider usually is not.Guided learning hours. A 120-hour course and a 300-hour course are not the same product, whatever the marketing says.National availability. England, or England and international.

What to send the seller?

Ask for the exact title as it appears on the certificate, the number in 6xx/xxxx/x form, and the awarding organisation. Then read the entry yourself rather than accepting a screenshot; a screenshot is old the moment it is taken, and status is the field most likely to have moved.

What to keep once you have paid?

Keep the confirmation showing the venue name, the exact test name, the date and the amount. If it later has to be argued that you sat the correct test, that document is the argument. A receipt from an intermediary naming only a “registration fee” is not the same thing.