An Interview with accredited Immigration Advisor, Anna Bose

This month accredited Immigration Advisor, Anna Bose, is joining the People Management Partners team. 

Anna works in an extremely specialist area of legislation and compliance which our clients often need support with. Anna holds an LLB(Hons) in Business Law along with Solicitors Law Society Finals qualifications and is a member of ILPA (Immigration Legal Practitioners Association), IBA (International Bar Association), the London Chamber of Commerce and the AEA (Association of European Lawyers). Anna also has experience in providing immigration solutions and strategy at the Home Office, in a Big 4 accountancy firm and for small businesses. In 2021, Anna founded ADBH Advisory, where she provides immigration solutions and strategy for individuals and corporate clients.

While we have referred our clients to many excellent external immigration experts in the past, Anna is now working as part of the team so we can support our clients more effectively. To help you get to know Anna and her expertise more, we interviewed her about her background and some commonly asked questions about immigration. 

How would you describe your career path? 

I started my immigration career with the Home Office before moving to one of the “Big Four” accountancy firms, where I was lucky enough to be seconded to Hong Kong for 6 months. After 7 years, I moved in-house and headed up Immigration for the UK and EMEA region for one of the large global IT consultancy companies. After 4 years, I moved to a boutique global immigration practice before heading up and re-launching the immigration team in another “Big Four” accountancy firm. In 2014 I assisted in setting up a boutique practice before moving to another boutique practice in 2019. In my 25-year career, I have been the ‘gamekeeper”, the “poacher”, the client, and assignee.

What do you enjoy about your job?

There are so many things I enjoy about my job. It’s extremely rewarding to help clients achieve their life changing goals, whether it is relocating to a new country, embark on a new career or enable them to be with loved ones

How do you help clients? 

I give practical advice and I help my clients to navigate the immigration “minefield” with as little or as much support they feel they need. My main role is to reduce the stress surrounding the legalities and the admin.  

If I am a small business owner, do we need a sponsorship licence?

As most businesses are still struggling to recruit and retain suitably skilled staff, having a sponsor licence enables all businesses to have access to a larger pool of qualified/skilled staff.

When should I think about applying for a sponsorship licence?

There’s no perfect time to apply. But having a licence in place, before you select your candidate from outside of the UK market, will remove time delays with onboarding the new member of staff.

I am only employing people from within the EU, do I need a sponsorship licence?

Yes – in short. All non-UK and Irish nationals, who don’t have settled (permanent) residence in the UK, require some form of permission to work in the UK. European nationals coming to the UK after 31st December 2020 require sponsorship under the sponsor licence, unless they have permission under another immigration category.

How much does it cost to get a sponsorship licence

The government filing fee for a small/medium company is £536 and the licence is approved for 4 years. Our fees to assist you apply for a sponsor licence, set up the infrastructure to operate the sponsor licence and to get the process and policies in place to meet the sponsor licence obligations, including providing training is £5,000 plus VAT.

Once I have one does that mean I can employ anyone from overseas?

Pretty much – Yes. The individual candidate, the job and salary would need to meet the immigration requirements under the Skilled Worker category but we are here to help you.

Anna is bringing a vast amount of expertise to People Management Partners. If you are thinking about employing someone from outside of the UK and would like a consultation with Anna, please get in touch with me.