Privacy policy

How PROVISAS collects, uses and protects your personal information.

1. Who we are

PROVISAS is the trading name of Professional Visas UK Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15370186). Our registered office is Unit 10, 80 Lytham Road, Fulwood, Preston PR2 3AQ. We work from 12 Apsley House, 176 Upper Richmond Road, London SW15 2SH.

We are the data controller for the personal information described in this notice. If you have a question about this policy or your information, email info@provisas.co.uk, write to us at 12 Apsley House, 176 Upper Richmond Road, London SW15 2SH, or contact us using the form on our Contact page.

2. What information we collect

We collect information you give us when you contact us or instruct us:

  • Enquiry form: your name, email address, phone number, the visa type you ask about, and anything you write in your message.
  • When we handle your case: identity and travel documents, immigration history, family details, employment and income evidence, accommodation, education and English language evidence, and other documents needed for your application.
  • Sensitive information: some applications need information about health, criminal records, or other special category data. We only collect this when your case needs it.
  • Employers: business details, key personnel, and details of workers you wish to sponsor.
  • Payments: records of what you paid and when. Card details are handled by our payment provider, not stored by us.

Most of this information comes from you. Some may come from your sponsor, employer or family members, with your knowledge, when needed for your case.

3. Why we use your information (purposes and lawful bases)

  • To answer your enquiry: because you asked us to (steps towards a contract), or our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us.
  • To prepare and manage your immigration application: to perform our contract with you.
  • To meet our regulatory and legal duties: including Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) requirements, record keeping, tax and accounting (legal obligation).
  • To run and improve our service: for our legitimate interests, such as keeping records accurate and following up on enquiries, where this does not override your rights.
  • To send optional updates about immigration changes: only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

We use sensitive (special category) information only where it is needed for your immigration application or legal claim, or with your explicit consent.

4. Who we share it with

  • UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) / the Home Office: only when you instruct us to submit or progress an application on your behalf.
  • The Immigration Advice Authority: if it asks for information as our regulator.
  • Another regulated adviser or solicitor: only if your case needs work outside our level and you agree to the referral.
  • Service providers who help us run the business (for example email, document storage, booking, payment and accounting). They may only use your information to provide their service to us.

We do not sell your information. We do not share it with the Home Office or UKVI unless you have instructed us to act for you on an application.

5. Clients and providers outside the UK

We advise clients in the UK and overseas, so we may send information to you or your family abroad when you ask us to. Some of our service providers may store information outside the UK. Where that happens, we make sure there are appropriate safeguards, such as UK adequacy regulations or approved contract terms.

6. How long we keep it

We keep different types of information for different periods:

  • Client files: we keep client files and records for at least six years after the matter ends, as required by the Immigration Advice Authority Code of Standards 2024 (Code 5.10). After that we securely destroy them.
  • Enquiries that do not become clients: we delete them, unless we need to keep them longer for a legitimate reason.
  • Invoices and accounting records: we keep these for six years from the end of the company financial year they relate to, following HMRC guidance for limited companies (GOV.UK: company and accounting records).

Under the UK GDPR storage limitation principle, we only keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes above. When a retention period ends, we delete or securely destroy the information.

7. Keeping it safe

We limit access to people who need it, use password-protected systems, and ask you to send documents by secure methods we will explain.

8. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

  • give you a copy of your information (subject access);
  • correct information that is wrong;
  • delete your information, where we do not need to keep it;
  • restrict or stop using your information in some cases;
  • send your information to you or another organisation in a portable format;
  • object to processing based on legitimate interests.

To use any of these rights, email info@provisas.co.uk, or contact us using the form on our Contact page. We will reply within one month.

9. Cookies

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10. Concerns about your data

If you have a concern about how we handle your data, please contact us first at info@provisas.co.uk (or via the form on our Contact page) and we will do our best to put it right. You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy.