Key organisations helping with immigration

Migrant Help provide information on asylum services, slavery and trafficking, refugee resettlement, EU settlement scheme and the refugee employability programme.

See their website’s contact us page for contact details for each of their help services.

The Refugee Council is a leading charity working with refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK. They support and empower people who have fled conflict, violence and persecution in order to rebuild their lives here in the UK. They provide crisis advice, mental health counselling and practical support to help people settle and integrate into their new community. For details on how to contact them, see their website.

Shelter provide housing information in context with immigration and residence queries you may have. Information includes: proving your immigration status, eligibility for homelessness help, what ‘recourse to public funds’ means, habitual residence, indefinite leave to remain, refugees, asylum seekers and more.

The AIRE Centre provides free legal advice and representation particularly to EEA nationals and their family members on free movement rights. Representing them in front of domestic immigration and social security tribunals on issues around their right to reside, access to benefits, healthcare and housing.

If need guidance as to your European Law Rights, their confidential advice line is open to you.

Call 020 7831 4276 or email info@airecentre.org them Monday – Friday between 10:30am and 6pm.

Whilst they are unable to give advice over the phone, they will take down your query and get back to you by email within five working days.

EERC a London based charity (reg. no. 1114607) providing information, advice and support to vulnerable Central and Eastern Europeans. EERC support citizens of the EU: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and non-EU: Ukraine, Belarus, Russia. Information is provided on immigration, welfare, housing, domestic violence, hate crime and Ukrainian support.

Here for Good empowers at-risk migrants to secure and safeguard their rights through free, high-quality legal services and strategic legal work. They currently provide free advice on the EU Settlement Scheme, the Ukraine Schemes and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

Settled is a charity set up in 2019 to help EU citizens living in the UK whose rights were affected by Brexit. They provide information, advice and support to EU citizens, including people who are late applying to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), or who have had their application refused. They also help when people are struggling to prove their immigration status or access rights and services. These can include the right to bring family members to join them in the UK, and to access welfare benefits, healthcare, etc. Advice on the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme is also given.

Big Leaf Foundation is an award-winning charity working with displaced young people aged 15-25 in Surrey. They support young people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes, for a multitude of reasons, including war and religious or political persecution. The majority of young people they support arrive in the UK alone as Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC). The aim of the Big Leaf Foundation is to provide a nurturing programme of activities, projects and events that focus on combating social isolation and improving wellbeing.

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner is the government office which regulates who can give immigration advice and what advice they can give. Their website has a search tool where you can find approved immigration advisers in your area, with a filter for those giving free advice and those you need to pay for here.