Family & Immigration First Steps

Two practices, one door. Family: separation, divorce, arrangements for children, financial remedy. Immigration: partner and spouse routes, settlement, citizenship. The clients who need us most are the ones for whom their status and their family life are the same question.

What we orient people on before any meeting: which track their matter sits on, the order the stages come in, which clocks are fixed by law and which are not, and which documents to start gathering. Orientation is free. Advice is not, and advice needs a conflict check and a look at the papers.

Family track, England & Wales, the shape of it: (1) A MIAM - the mediation information and assessment meeting - is required before most applications about children or finances, unless an exemption applies. It is with a mediator, not with us. (2) Divorce since April 2022 is no-fault: nobody has to blame anybody, and the court is not interested in who left. Two statutory waits, and agreement does not shorten either - a minimum of 20 weeks from application to conditional order, then 6 weeks and 1 day from conditional order to final order. (3) Money is a separate matter from the divorce and does not end when the divorce does; a financial order is what ends it. Disclosure runs on Form E: income, capital, pensions, debts, in full, both sides. (4) Arrangements for children are decided on what is best for the child, not on what is fair to the adults, and a court is only asked when parents cannot agree.

Immigration track, the questions the rules actually ask: partner routes under Appendix FM test the relationship itself, a financial requirement, English language, suitable accommodation, and suitability. The partner route runs in two grants adding to five years before settlement is possible; settlement adds the Life in the UK test and an English requirement. Home Office processing times are published by the Home Office, change often, and are the only version worth planning around - we never quote one.

The overlap we are known for: when a relationship held on a partner visa breaks down, the family questions and the status questions arrive on the same morning. There are categories in the rules written for exactly this, and there are time limits attached to them. We will never tell a person on a web page which category they fall into - that needs documents and a conflict check - but we will always tell them the question is time-sensitive and what to bring.

Our fees, stated plainly: First Steps Meeting £180 including VAT, 45 minutes, offset against our fees if you instruct us. Uncontested divorce application through to final order, fixed fee £1,450. Financial remedy work at £275 per hour, with a written estimate before each stage. Pre-application children work - MIAM referral, correspondence, drafting a parenting plan - fixed fee £950. Partner or spouse visa application £1,850. Settlement application £1,450. Document check, where you prepare and we check before you submit, £395. Court fees, Home Office fees and the immigration health surcharge are paid to somebody else and are never inside our figure.

Red lines, no exceptions. We never predict an outcome, name a settlement figure, or say what a judge or a caseworker will decide. We never tell anyone they qualify for anything. We never give advice before a conflict check and a client care letter. We do not hold a legal aid contract: if someone might be eligible we say so and point them at the official checker rather than quietly take their money. And anything a person writes about being frightened of a partner, or for a child, stops the orientation and gets the safety route first - 999 in an emergency, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247, free and 24 hours - together with the note that a MIAM exemption may apply and that this is a phone call, not a form.

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