Privacy Policy

Border & Boundaries is a UK immigration law firm providing specialist advice to individuals, families, and businesses. We are regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA), formerly the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), Registration No. F202100358.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Border & Boundaries is the data controller responsible for your personal information. If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, please contact us via the details on our Contact page.

We may collect and process the following categories of personal information:

• •Identity and contact details, name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, nationality, and passport details.
• •Immigration and case information, visa history, employment details, family circumstances, financial information, and documents you provide for your application.
• •Enquiry and consultation data, information submitted through our website forms, booking requests, emails, phone calls, and consultations.
• •Technical data, IP address, browser type, device information, and website usage data collected through cookies (see our Cookie Policy).
• •Payment information, billing details processed by our payment providers. We do not store full card details on our servers.

Some of the information we process may relate to your immigration status, nationality, or ethnic origin. This is special category data under UK GDPR and we process it only where necessary to provide immigration legal services or with your explicit consent.

We use your personal information to:

• •Respond to enquiries and book consultations
• •Assess your immigration matter and provide legal advice
• •Prepare, submit, and manage visa and immigration applications on your behalf
• •Communicate with the Home Office, UKVI, and other authorities as your representative
• •Invoice you and manage payments for our services
• •Comply with regulatory obligations as an IAA-regulated firm
• •Improve our website and services
• •Send relevant updates where you have opted in to receive them

We will not use your information for purposes incompatible with those described above without informing you.

Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following lawful bases:

• •Contract, where processing is necessary to provide immigration legal services you have instructed us to carry out.
• •Legal obligation, where we must retain records or report information to regulators.
• •Legitimate interests, to respond to enquiries, manage our business, and improve our services, where these interests are not overridden by your rights.
• •Consent, where you have given clear consent, for example to marketing communications or non-essential cookies.

For special category data, we rely on the substantial public interest or explicit consent exemptions applicable to the provision of legal services.

We may share your personal information with:

• •The Home Office, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), and other UK government bodies as part of your application
• •Courts and tribunals where your matter requires it
• •Our professional advisers, such as barristers, translators, or medical experts instructed on your case
• •IT and cloud service providers who host our systems (under data processing agreements)
• •Payment processors to handle transactions
• •The Immigration Advice Authority or other regulators if required by law

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. Any service providers we use are required to protect your data and process it only on our instructions.

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, regulatory, accounting, or reporting requirements.

As an IAA-regulated firm, we are required to retain client files for a minimum period after your matter concludes. Enquiry records that do not proceed to instruction are typically retained for up to 12 months. You may request erasure where we have no lawful reason to continue holding your data.

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• •Access the personal information we hold about you
• •Request correction of inaccurate data
• •Request erasure in certain circumstances
• •Restrict or object to processing in certain circumstances
• •Data portability where applicable
• •Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk if you believe we have not handled your data appropriately.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These include secure file storage, access controls, and staff training on data protection.

While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure. Please do not send sensitive documents by unsecured email unless we have provided you with a secure upload method.

Your information is primarily processed within the United Kingdom. Where we use cloud services or share information with parties outside the UK, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as UK adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses approved by the ICO.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest version will always be published on this page. We encourage you to review it periodically. Material changes will be communicated where appropriate.