IAA levels explained: what Level 1, 2 and 3 advisers can do

The body of advice you can legally give in the UK is decided by a single line on a register: your IAA level. Yet the levels are easy to misread, and the regulator changed its name recently enough that most people still search for the old one.

Here is what Level 1, 2 and 3 actually permit, where the boundary bites in daily work, and which official page to check when a case sits near the edge.

The name changed, the levels did not

On 16 January 2025 the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner became the Immigration Advice Authority. Existing registrations stayed valid, the Commissioner still holds the statutory role, and the level structure carried over unchanged.

In practice the old name is far from retired. Search volumes in the UK still run heavily towards "OISC" over "IAA", so if you are writing about your own registration for clients, naming both is kinder than picking one. On your own website, "regulated by the IAA (formerly the OISC)" removes the doubt in one line.

The statutory basis has not moved either. The Code of Standards is made under paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 5 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and it applies to any organisation or person giving immigration advice or services in the UK in relation to a relevant matter under section 82 of that Act.

Level 1: advice and assistance

Level 1 covers applications that rely on the straightforward presentation of facts. The client either meets the qualifying criteria or does not, and no discretionary judgement is being asked of the decision maker.

Typical Level 1 work includes:

• Basic entry clearance applications
• Permission to enter or stay, and variation applications
• Registration for British citizenship
• Assistance with the EU Settlement Scheme

The word doing the work in that definition is "straightforward". A case that starts as a simple extension can acquire a discretionary element halfway through, and at that moment it stops being Level 1 work. That is a file management problem as much as a legal one, because somebody has to notice.

Level 2: casework

Level 2 includes everything at Level 1 and adds the cases where discretion, history or vulnerability enter the picture:

• Asylum applications
• Matters engaging the Human Rights Act
• Complex or discretionary applications, including those involving overstayers, illegal entry, trafficking, removal and deportation
• Administrative review

There is one boundary at Level 2 worth stating plainly, because it is the one most often blurred: notices of appeal and statements can be lodged, but a Level 2 adviser cannot represent the client at the appeal itself.

Level 3: advocacy and representation

Level 3 takes in all Level 1 and Level 2 work and adds representation:

• Specialist casework
• Representation before the First-tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal
• Drafting grounds of appeal
• Instructing counsel under Licensed Access arrangements

With the IAA's approval, Level 3 advisers can also conduct Judicial Review Case Management.

Who does not need to register at all

Registration is the default for businesses and for voluntary or community organisations offering immigration advice or services in the UK. The exemptions are narrower than people assume:

• Members of designated professional bodies, which is how solicitors and barristers are covered
• Government employees acting in that capacity
• Specific ministerial exemptions, which is where licensed sponsors and relevant employers sit

This is the fact that surprises people looking at the market from the outside: the register is mostly not law firms. Solicitors are regulated elsewhere, so the IAA register is overwhelmingly advice organisations and consultancies. Anyone building services or software for the sector needs to start from that, because the two groups keep their files and their client money under different rulebooks.

Where the level boundary shows up in your files

Levels are not just a badge on a website. Two Codes in the Code of Standards turn them into daily obligations.

Code 3.3 requires that you do not provide advice or services, or operate, above your authorised level or category without the Commissioner's written permission. Code 3.4 allows outsourcing only within your approved level and categories, and requires the client's prior consent before you seek additional advice, opinions or other professional services on their behalf.

Read together they create a practical test for any practice with more than one adviser. When a matter shifts up a level mid-case, can you show when it shifted, who noticed, and where it went next? A file that records the service type, the responsible adviser and the stage history answers that in seconds. A file spread across a spreadsheet, an inbox and someone's memory does not.

That is the reason client records and matters in ACTRA carry the service type and the responsible fee earner rather than leaving them implied, and why every change is recorded with a before and after snapshot. Neither feature is glamorous. Both exist because the question gets asked.

Check the official sources

Levels and categories change, and nothing on a vendor's blog should be your authority for a registration question. Two pages are worth bookmarking:

• IAA adviser registration explained for the levels and what each permits
• Regulations that immigration advisers must follow for the wider regulatory framework

This article is general information about how the levels are structured, not legal advice on your own registration. For that, the IAA is the only address that counts.