Terms of business

It is important that you are fully informed about how your instructions will be handled by BPA Associates Ltd herein referred to as “the Company”. This page sets out the Company’s Terms and Conditions of Business. Please read this entire document carefully and keep in a safe place for your future reference.

We reserve the right to make amendments to these Terms of Business. We will let you know of any changes should they affect your current matter. Copies of the Company’s amended Terms and Conditions of Business will be available upon request.

By proceeding with your instructions constitutes acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business. It is the Company’s policy that we are unable to commence work on your behalf until these Terms and Conditions of Business have been accepted and the relevant fees agreed. By signing the Client Care Letter you are deemed to have read, understood and accepted the Company’s Terms of Business in their entirety except where they have been varied in writing with our agreement. If you pay for any products that you have ordered, after we have sent to you a copy of these Terms, it shall be deemed that such terms have been accepted in their entirety.

1. Service we provide

We will prepare all legal documentation in accordance with the instructions provided to the Company and submitted to us electronically or on paper.
We will provide you with a copy of application made to the Home Office

2. What you will receive

Copy of application.
Certificate of Application.
Confirmation of receipt of your order.

3. Joint Instructions

These rules apply in areas where instructions have been taken jointly from more than one client in a meeting regarding more than one legal document.
We confirm that, we requested that “the Company” act for both of us.
We understand that, no information received in connection with the matter from one can be treated as confidential so far as any of the others are concerned.
We confirm that there was no conflict which remained unresolved and prevented “the Company” from being able to act for both, or all of us.
We confirm that should such a conflict subsequently arise following our initial instruction that, this would lead to “the Company” being unable to act for both, or all of us and this would include subsequent changes to either Will/legal document of which the other, or others, would not be aware.

4. No Visa No Fee

At BPA Immigration Lawyers, we pride ourselves on the quality of our work; our expert advisors will give you honest and constructive feedback on your case to ensure you are entirely satisfied before we begin your immigration journey together. To demonstrate the confidence we have in our abilities, we guarantee our work. This means that, in the unlikely event that your permit or visa is refused, we will refund our professional fees in line with our Terms, Conditions, and Exclusions. We ensure that every element of our work is of a highly professional standard, and we will not submit an application if we do not believe there is a high chance of success.

We call this our No Visa, No Fee Guarantee (NVNF Guarantee).

There may be an occasion where our experienced advisors believe that an application carries a risk of refusal, should this be the case we will always make this clear to the client both verbally and in writing before we act. If despite this warning, the client still wishes to move forward and submit the application, we will be unable to extend our NVNF Guarantee to cover their matter.

5. We do not work on credit

Our NVNF Guarantee means that if a guaranteed application is refused, we will refund our professional fees or re-do the application free of charge. This does not mean that we work on credit. Full payment of our professional fees has to be made by a client before we submit any permit or visa application.

6. Consultation Fees

Our consultations are a preliminary meeting with a qualified advisor to discuss your matter and have a separate charge from our aforementioned professional fees. At this stage, the consultant will decide whether your application will be guaranteed or if it falls for the risk of refusal. Due to the nature of this meeting, our NVNF Guarantee does not extend to cover the consultation fee and is therefore not refundable under any circumstances.

7. Appeals, Administrative Reviews & other very complex cases

Due to their nature, UK appeals, Administrative Reviews, and other complex levels 3 matters always have an uncertain outcome. We, therefore, cannot extend our NVNF Guarantee to cover these matters.

8. Confirmation of the No Visa, No Fee guarantee

As previously mentioned, your immigration consultant will confirm if you qualify for the NVNF Guarantee. If you do not receive the NVNF Guarantee and believe that you are eligible, we welcome you to discuss this with your immigration consultant.

There are sometimes occasions where an NVNF Guarantee is provided, but at a later stage, new critical information arises, or we find that false information has been provided to us. Should this happen, we will be obligated to withdraw the NVNF Guarantee and will notify you of this change. We pride ourselves on our honesty and integrity and ask our clients to offer us the same when providing information and evidence.

9.Other Exclusions

As mentioned above, some circumstances hold a risk of refusal, and therefore will not be covered by our NVNF Guarantee.
Please see below a non-exhaustive list of circumstances not covered by our NVNF Guarantee.
Where an applicant has contravened the Immigration Rules in any way or has overstayed the validity of their visa at any stage. This includes any infringement of national or international immigration laws, be it in the UK or another country.

Where false information or documentation has been provided, this includes misleading information, materials, and inaccurate personal identity information.

Where applicants have purposely omitted revealing relevant information to their immigration consultant, whether directly or indirectly, or should they have reasonably foreseen said information could negatively influence the outcome of their visa decision.

Where applicants fail to keep us informed of relevant changes to their circumstances, and such changes can influence the outcome of a visa decision.

Kindly note that should our advisers become aware of the above at a later stage, they have complete discretion to withdraw the NVNF Guarantee.

We believe in our work, and we want to give you the confidence and peace of mind that your case is in the safe hands of our advisers. We hope that our NVNF Guarantee gives you this comfort in our capabilities.

10. What we do not provide

We do NOT guarantee your visa application will be successful
We do not provide refunds if your application is unsuccessful
This list is not exhaustive but if you have any doubts on how a change of circumstances may affect your legal documents, please contact BPA Associates Ltd.

11. The cost to you

The cost to you will be detailed by BPA Associates Ltd at the point of sale.

A receipt will be provided to you at the point of sale.

In addition to the costs detailed on the receipt, there may be disbursement costs and other expenses. It shall be your responsibility to settle all the legal costs, disbursements and expenses that we incur throughout your matter. Where we are instructed by more than one person or legal entity to represent their joint interests, those instructions are considered to be joint and several and thus we reserve the right to look to either party for settlement of any outstanding costs, disbursement and expenses.

12. Payment

Payment is by debit, or credit card, bank transfer or cheque.. Rights of Cancellation

You have a right to cancel this agreement with us provided you do so in writing, including electronic mail, to reach us within 14 Calendar days of receipt of payment.

It will have been explained to you at the point of sale that you could either:

Instruct us to proceed immediately in which case you would not be able to cancel this agreement if we had started work.

Please Note: This does not affect your statutory right to cancel however, you may be required to pay for goods or services supplied, if the performance of the contract had begun with your written agreement, before the end of the cancellation period.

Take no action for 14 calendar days after receipt of payment, the Terms of Business and the Right to Cancel Forms, provided to you. We would then proceed to prepare your legal document(s), or other legal documents and you would no longer be able to cancel the contract.

You will have been informed that should you elect to wait until the statutory 14 days have elapsed and you were not to survive this period, then there would be no recourse for any claim to be made against BPA Associates Ltd.

13. After sales

If we have made an error in the drafting of your legal documents, or you require changes to be made you should contact us immediately upon receipt. We will then correct any error or make any cosmetic amendments. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you might have.

14. Identification Requirements and Money Laundering

We may be required by law to obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity of our clients and/or any third parties involved in your instructions. To comply with the law, we may need to obtain proof of your identity, depending on the nature of the work we are carrying out on your behalf, as soon as possible.

Please note, the identification requirements adhered to herein may vary depending on the individual circumstances of each case. We therefore reserve the right to request further documentation should we deem it appropriate in order to satisfy the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and any other such governing regulations and/or legislation.

15. Confidentiality and Data protection

Your contact details and relevant personal information will be obtained to ensure that your documentation which you have asked us to provide is completed correctly and accurately. For more information, please read our “Privacy Statement” at www.bpaassociatesltd.com or request a copy by writing to our Office address below.

Generally speaking, all information supplied to us by you shall be treated as confidential at all times, unless we are required to disclose and/or discuss your information upon your instructions (implicit or actual), by an Order of the Court, under current legislation, updated legal and/or regulatory compliance or by way of any other statutory exceptions. Your personal information is stored by us in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Our use of such information is subject to your instructions, the DPA 1998 and our duty of confidentiality. You have a right of access under the GDPR legislation to the information we hold about you.

It may be necessary for the successful and efficient conclusion of your matter for us to occasionally disclose your personal information that you have provided us to third parties who are involved with completing your instructions. Our Company may be subject to audit or quality checks from time to time by outside organisations and your information may also be passed to Authorities in the event of any disclosures. Your acceptance of these Terms shall be treated as appropriate authority for us to pass on such details unless we hear to the contrary in writing beforehand. All external organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files and comply with the GDPR.

If we hold any sensitive personal data (as defined in the GDPR) such as medical records, you must provide your permission before we may disclose it to third parties.

We encourage communications by way of email and therefore we shall correspond with you by such means where you are happy for us to do so. However, please note communications by email can be unsecure and emails may contain viruses. Whilst “the Company” uses anti-virus software for all email communications, we cannot be held responsible for any potential risks that may arise from any emails that we send, which may contain viruses and which shall also include any circumstances where emails have been misdirected or not received by you.

During the Consultation, those people or companies whom you have chosen to have access to your completed documents will be identified to “the Company” and detailed within the Client Disclaimer which will be signed by you.

16. File Retention and Retrieval

In the event that you require us to retrieve a file from storage or send any of your papers to you or any third party, we may levy a charge for the service. We may also levy a charge where your instructions in relation to the retrieved file of papers involve perusing, corresponding or any other such work.

Should you require us to send your file of papers to you in the post, we may require such postage costs to be paid in advance of releasing the papers. We shall not release any file of papers to any third party unless we have your written consent to do so. The party collecting the file on your behalf will need to supply us with photo identification and a copy will be retained for our records

17. Complaints

Whilst we assume that you will be pleased with our service, in the unlikely event that you do have any cause for complaint, this should be made within 6 months of completion of your order and in the first instance should be raised with the person who took your instructions. We have an agreed complaint procedure in place which is available on request. Your adviser will attempt to settle any dispute that you may have. Please direct your concerns to

Ben Ashenden – BPA Associates Ltd, 75a Jacobs Wells Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1DJ

18. Explanation of Terms

If you are unclear as to the nature and/or extent of either our or your obligations under these Terms and Conditions of Business, or you require further information, please contact the adviser responsible for your instructions.

19. Conflicts of Interest.

We will endeavour to avoid situations of conflict to ensure that a client’s interests are not compromised. We will advise you if we become aware that an issue of conflict exists. If you should be concerned about such an issue then please immediately refer your concern to your adviser. We assure you that we will always act independently and in your best interests as our client. Money Laundering Regulations can also give rise to matters of conflict and lead to us being unable to continue acting in some exceptional circumstances.

20. Limit on our liability

In respect of the advice we render and work we undertake we will limit our potential liability to you to £2M. In instructing us, you accept that in the event of our negligence or breach of contract, you cannot claim more than that sum from us or our insurers, and that you have no claim against any of our staff personally. In respect of any claim or potential claim against us we limit the time you have in which to claim to 3 years from the date of the alleged act or omission or 12 months from the date you became aware of it as appropriate.

21. Changes in the Law

Unless we have current and/or specific instructions from you in writing to review the law and report to you from time to time or to deal with the matters in question immediately prior to a critical date, we will not remind you of changes in the law which might affect you or future critical dates.