Permits and visas, explained in writing before you pay anything

No, and nobody honest can. The decision is not ours and it is not for sale.

What we can do is make sure your file is complete and that you know what is in it. A complete file is refused very rarely. If somebody offers you a guarantee, ask them what exactly they are planning to do, and consider what it would mean for you if it were discovered.

Never. Every fee is paid by the employer or the worker, directly into the government account, from an account in their own name.

We tell you the amount, the account and the reference, and we look at the receipt with you afterwards. An adviser who takes your fee money in cash has put you in a position where you cannot prove you paid it, and that is a position we will not put a client in.

Passports for everybody the file concerns, with all the pages. The employment offer or contract if one exists. The company registration and the current staff list if you are the employer. Any permit or visa you already hold, even an expired one.

Originals as well as copies. About one appointment in six turns on something only the original shows, such as an entry stamp or an endorsement that did not photograph.

The part we control is assembling a complete file, which takes about a week once you have your documents. The waiting after that is not ours to promise and it moves with the season and the category.

What we will give you at the appointment is the range we have actually seen this year for your category and nationality, with the dates, rather than a comfortable number. Where your own documents are the slow part, and they usually are, the checklist says which one to start today.

For ordinary permit work, yes, and most of our files are exactly that: an employer paying and a worker whose papers we prepare.

In a dispute, no. We will not act for both sides, and if a disagreement appears partway through we tell you both and step back from one side. You are told which side and why, in writing, the same day.

Appointments are paid at the desk when you arrive and you get a numbered receipt. Work on a file is quoted in writing as a fixed figure for a named outcome, half at the start and half when the permit or visa is in your hand.

There is no hourly rate and no open ended retainer. If the job turns out to be bigger than the quotation described, we come back to you with a new figure before doing any of it, and you are free to stop.