Legal Advisors is an immigration firm registered in the United Kingdom and Portugal. We prepare, submit and see through visa, family, work, settlement and citizenship applications for clients relocating to the UK, Portugal, Spain, Germany and across the Schengen area.
Most clients come to us with a country in mind and a deadline attached to it. We advise on the route that actually fits your circumstances — which is not always the one you first read about.
Visitor, student, work, family and settlement routes under the UK Immigration Rules, plus ETA and post-Brexit travel questions.
Work, study, family reunification and passive-income residence permits, NIF and AIMA appointments, and the road to Portuguese citizenship.
Student and work authorisations, non-lucrative and digital nomad residence, family reunification and TIE registration.
National D visas, EU Blue Card, job-seeker and study routes, recognition of qualifications and family reunion applications.
Schengen C visas for tourism, family visits, business and conferences, with the 90/180 rule applied correctly to your travel history.
Study, work and family routes in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Austria and Poland.
British nationals moving to or spending long periods in the EU — residence permits, EES and ETIAS, and Withdrawal Agreement rights.
EU Settlement Scheme late applications, family permits, sponsored work routes and switching into settlement.
Choose a category to see the routes we handle, who each one is for, and what an application needs. Open any service for the full detail.
Applications you make in your own name — to visit, to study, to travel, or to claim a right you already hold through your family history.
Short stays for tourism, family, business meetings or medical treatment.
A standard visitor visa lets you come for a limited period — usually up to six months in the UK — without working or claiming public funds. Refusals almost always come down to two things: the caseworker not believing you will leave, and finances that don't match the trip you've described. We build the application around both.
For Commonwealth citizens with a UK-born grandparent.
The UK Ancestry route is one of the most generous in the Immigration Rules and one of the least known. If you are a Commonwealth citizen with a grandparent born in the UK, Islands or (in some cases) pre-1922 Ireland, you can live and work in the UK without a sponsor, change jobs freely, be self-employed, and bring your partner and children.
Degree, foundation and language study, with dependants where allowed.
Study routes are document-driven and unforgiving — a maintenance balance held one day short of the required period is an automatic refusal. We check the money, the CAS, the qualifications and the credibility answers before anything is submitted.
Where an employer, school or family member sponsors your stay.
Sponsorship shifts part of the burden onto the person or organisation backing you — and part of the risk. We act for both sides: applicants who have an offer and need it converted into a visa, and sponsors who need their licence, certificates and compliance duties handled.
Stay on after your UK degree without a job offer.
The Graduate route lets students who have completed an eligible UK course stay to work, look for work or be self-employed — with no sponsor, no salary threshold and no job offer required. It is unsponsored breathing space, and it is the natural bridge into the Skilled Worker route.
What changed, and what British passport holders now need in the EU.
British citizens are third-country nationals in the EU. Short visits are visa-free but capped, long stays need a national permit, and new border systems are being rolled out. Getting the arithmetic wrong can cost you entry or trigger an overstay record.
Short-stay C visas for 29 European countries.
One visa, many consulates, and each with its own habits. The first question is always which country you must apply to — the main destination, or the first point of entry if the trip is evenly split. Apply to the wrong one and you are refused on competence alone.
The digital permission visa-exempt visitors now need.
An ETA is not a visa. It is a digital permission to travel that visa-exempt nationals must hold before boarding for the UK. It is linked to your passport, valid for multiple trips over a period of years, and can be refused — usually because of a criminal record or a previous immigration breach.
Family applications are decided on evidence of a relationship, not on how real it feels to you. Our job is to translate a life into a file a caseworker can approve.
Giving notice, the 28-day period and the immigration side.
Civil partnership is open to same-sex and opposite-sex couples and carries the same immigration weight as marriage. Where one partner is subject to immigration control, notice is referred to the Home Office and the waiting period can be extended for investigation.
Joining or staying with a British or settled partner.
The partner route is granted in stages: an initial period of leave, one extension, then settlement — five years in total for most couples. Each stage tests the relationship, the finances, the accommodation and English. Miss one and the clock restarts.
Come to the UK to marry, then switch.
A fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner visa gives you a short, non-working period in the UK to hold the ceremony. You must marry within that window and then switch in-country to the partner route — there is no extension of the fiancé(e) visa itself.
For couples living together in a relationship akin to marriage.
You do not have to marry to join a partner in the UK. You do have to prove you have lived together in a relationship akin to marriage or civil partnership for at least two years before applying — and cohabitation evidence is where these applications are won or lost.
Two routes: parent of a child in the UK, and adult dependent relative.
These are two different applications that people often confuse. One is for a parent who is not with the child's other parent but has access to and involvement with a British or settled child in the UK. The other is for an elderly or unwell parent who needs long-term care that cannot be obtained in their own country.
Children joining or accompanying a parent.
A child under 18 can join a parent who is British, settled, or applying on a work, study or family route. The recurring obstacle is sole responsibility — where only one parent is in the UK, the Home Office asks hard questions about who has really been raising the child.
We act for individuals with an offer in hand and for employers building a compliant sponsorship function — including businesses hiring across the UK, Portugal, Spain and Germany at once.
Short-term sponsored routes for defined purposes.
Temporary Work covers a family of sub-routes, each with its own sponsor type, duration and conditions. Choosing the wrong one wastes a Certificate of Sponsorship and a fee.
The main UK work route, and the main road to settlement.
A Skilled Worker visa requires a job with a licensed sponsor, at the required skill level, paid at or above the relevant salary threshold for that occupation code. It can be extended, it allows dependants, and continuous time on it counts towards indefinite leave to remain.
For faith leaders taking a pastoral role in the UK.
This route is for those taking up a role as a minister of religion, missionary or member of a religious order with a sponsoring faith organisation. It is distinct from the Religious Worker route, which does not permit leading a congregation.
For leaders and potential leaders — no employer, no sponsor.
Global Talent is the most flexible work route the UK offers. You work for anyone, or for yourself, change jobs without telling the Home Office, and can qualify for settlement early depending on the endorsement you hold. Most applicants need an endorsement from an approved body first.
Founders, investors, expansion workers and business visitors.
From a week of meetings to moving a company's centre of gravity to Europe, the right route depends on what you will actually do and for whom you are paid.
For clinical and eligible care roles, with reduced fees.
A sub-category of the Skilled Worker route for qualified professionals in eligible health and social care occupations. It carries lower application fees, exemption from the immigration health surcharge, and faster processing — but only if the job code and sponsor qualify.
The end of the road: permanent status, and then a passport. These applications reward careful record-keeping over years — which is exactly what most people don't have. We reconstruct it.
The application that turns settled status into a passport.
Naturalisation is discretionary. Meeting the requirements gets you considered; good character, residence and intention decide the outcome. Refusals are expensive because the fee is not refunded.
Settlement — no time limit, no conditions on work.
ILR removes the time limit on your stay. Most routes qualify after five continuous years, though some — Global Talent, Innovator Founder, and certain endorsements — can settle sooner, and family routes on the ten-year path take longer.
Settlement after ten years of continuous lawful residence.
If you have lived in the UK lawfully for ten continuous years — on any combination of visas, including student and work leave — you may qualify for settlement even though no single route would have got you there. The route is technical and absence-sensitive.
Portuguese citizenship, permanent residence and EU long-term status.
Portugal offers one of the shorter routes to EU citizenship in Europe. Time spent with a valid residence permit counts, and Portuguese nationality brings free movement across the Union.
Academic routes have their own vocabulary — CAS, ATAS, supervision letters, funding confirmations. We work with doctoral candidates, post-docs and the universities that host them.
Doctoral study in the UK and Europe, with family alongside.
Doctoral students get the most generous treatment of any study route: longer leave, more work rights, the ability to bring dependants on UK courses of the qualifying length, and a longer Graduate visa at the end.
Research fellowships, academic posts and sponsored research.
After the doctorate, the question is which route gives you the most freedom. A sponsored academic post ties you to one institution; Global Talent does not. We compare them against your funding, your mobility and your settlement timeline before you commit.
Four stages, a fixed fee agreed at the second one, and the same adviser throughout. You will always know where your case stands.
A consultation by phone, video or in either office. We go through your history, documents and timeline, and tell you which routes are open — including when the answer is none yet.
A written plan setting out the route, the evidence required, realistic timescales, government fees and our fixed fee. Nothing starts until you accept it.
We collect and check every document, chase what's missing, arrange translations and certifications, and draft the legal submissions that accompany your forms.
We submit, book biometrics or the consular appointment, respond to any Home Office or consulate queries, and advise on the next step the moment a decision lands.
We are an immigration firm registered in both the United Kingdom and Portugal, advising individuals, families and employers on movement into and around Europe. Working across two jurisdictions means we can answer the question most firms can't: not only can I get this visa, but which country should I be applying to at all.
Our clients are students with a term start date, couples separated by a border, nurses and engineers with an offer letter, founders opening a European entity, and British families who moved to the Algarve and now need to make it permanent.
We would rather tell you on the first call that an application will fail than take a fee for submitting it.
Legal Advisors — Immigration FirmOffices in London and Lisbon, with UK and Portuguese immigration handled by one team rather than passed between firms.
You see the full cost — our fee and every government charge — before any work begins. No hourly surprises.
If the route doesn't work, we say so and tell you what would have to change. Most refusals we see were predictable.
Translations, apostilles, certified copies, registry searches and consular legalisation arranged as part of the case.
Advice in English, Portuguese, Urdu and Punjabi, across UK and Lisbon time zones.
Sponsor licences, right-to-work checks and audit readiness for businesses hiring from overseas.
We charge a fixed professional fee per application, quoted after the initial assessment and confirmed in writing before we start. Government fees — Home Office charges, the immigration health surcharge, consular and biometric fees — are separate and paid directly by you. Complex cases, appeals and employer licence work are quoted individually.
Yes, and it is a large part of our work. The first step is reading the refusal notice properly: it tells us whether the answer is an administrative review, an appeal, or a fresh application that fixes the defect. Deadlines here are short and strict, so contact us as soon as you have the decision.
No. Most cases run entirely by video call, email and secure document upload, and we act for clients across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. You are welcome at either the London or Lisbon office if you prefer to meet in person.
It depends on the route and where you apply from. Visitor and short-stay decisions are usually measured in weeks; settlement and citizenship in months. Priority and super-priority services are available on many UK routes. We give you the current published timescale at the quote stage and tell you if it looks optimistic.
That is exactly the conversation to have before you file anything. The answer turns on your nationality, your qualifications, your family, where you can realistically meet a financial requirement, and how quickly you want permanent status. Because we are registered in both the UK and Portugal, we can compare the two honestly instead of steering you towards the only route we handle.
Visa-free short stays in the Schengen area are limited to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period, counted across all Schengen countries together. If you want longer — a second home, retirement, remote work or study — you need a national long-stay visa or residence permit from the country concerned. We plan both.
Frequently. Salary thresholds, financial requirements, English levels and qualifying periods are all revised regularly, and transitional provisions often protect people who applied earlier. We check the position on the day you instruct us rather than relying on what was true last year.
Send a few details and we will come back to you with the routes worth considering and what an assessment would involve.
