Vishal Makol

Why choose me

I advise and support multi-national corporations and SMEs who wish to employ foreign nationals and their dependants who are either already in the UK or those from outside the UK. I also advise and support individuals with personal immigration matters.

My experience means I’m acutely aware of the intricacies of immigration rules and how they are best utilised in immigration applications.

I assist companies with Sponsor Licence Applications to help sponsor foreign nationals to work for them.

I also assist with applications for Indefinite Leave to Remain for Skilled Worker applicants who have become eligible to apply, and with Global Business Mobility visa applicants seeking entry clearance or wishing to extend their leave.

My personal immigration expertise encompasses Appendix FM (Partner) applications, indefinite leave to remain applications, EUSS applications and naturalisation applications.

My experience includes:

• Drafting detailed and complex grounds for judicial reviews and skeleton arguments in Appeal work, when the Home Office had made adverse decisions on representations submitted by applicants for their immigration applications.
• Assisting multiple blue-chip companies in securing Home Office Sponsor Licences to employ foreign nationals in the UK through the Skilled Worker and Global Business Mobility routes and for the companies to maintain compliance.
• Acting for sponsors facing Home Office investigation, revocation of their licence, and civil and criminal penalties for breaching their immigration obligations, which included employing illegal migrants, failing to keep proper documentation etc.
• Advising employers and employees on complying with immigration law, including prevention of illegal working by taking the relevant right to work checks.
• Representing an assignee and their unmarried same-sex partner who were applying for entry clearance as a Skilled Worker visa and Dependant visa. The application for the Skilled Worker visa was granted but the Dependant visa was refused. I drafted detailed complex representations to the Home Office explaining the legal mistake in their decision letter. The decision was subsequently reversed, and the dependant partner was granted with entry clearance visa.
• Representing applicants in naturalisation applications where the required absences exceeded what was permitted or where there was an issue with the good character requirement. I advised the applicants accordingly on the rules. Subsequent representations were drafted to the Home Office to address the absences and reasons why the good character requirement was satisfied and ask for discretion in decision making. This resulted in the applications being granted.

Outside of work I enjoy watching and attending football matches. I hail from the Merseyside area, and I’m an avid fan of Liverpool Football Club, regularly attending matches with my family at Anfield and elsewhere.

I also enjoy watching most sports, particularly tennis and all forms of cricket.

Away from sport, I listen to a variety of music from 1960s Merseybeat to Bhangra, Hip Hop and R & B. I also attend pub quizzes, am interested in astronomy, and watch science fiction programmes, quiz shows, and Hindi and English films.