Carolyn Bowie

Carolyn is a Partner and heads our business immigration law practice.

With more than 20 years’ experience in professional legal services, Carolyn has advised a wide range of clients including FTSE 100 companies, multinationals, NHS Trusts, universities and individuals across the full spectrum of immigration, right to work and compliance matters.

Offering practical help in the face of complex Home Office Rules, Carolyn assists clients to manage the risks involved with the sometimes-inconsistent application of those rules. Carolyn also has a First-Class Business Degree, and her commercial experience puts her in the best position to work with clients with the aim of achieving a positive outcome.

She is a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA) and the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA). Her articles are regularly featured in well-known publications, such as The Carer magazine, Care and Nursing Magazine, Lexology, The Herald and The Scotsman newspaper.

Her deep expertise enhances our integrated support for employers navigating immigration, employment and discrimination issues.

Experience

Business Immigration

• Sponsor licence applications and compliance
• Sponsorship management system (SMS) assistance
• The sponsorship process, eligibility checks for work visas, including identifying appropriate Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes, Creating and assigning defined and undefined certificates of sponsorship (CoS)
• Switching visa categories
• Business visitor permissions
• Right to work assistance, including compliance with illegal working laws, responding to correspondence from Immigration Enforcement and mock-compliance audits
• Avoiding discrimination in recruitment and management of migrant workers
• Dismissal and redundancy of a sponsored worker
• Providing pre- and post-acquisition immigration advice and due diligence
• TUPE provisions for sponsored workers
• Delivering training on all aspects of immigration, compliance and right to work.
• Full range of visa applications, including, but not limited to:
  • Skilled worker visa
  • Health and care worker visa
  • Global business mobility visas
  • Scale-up worker visas
  • Global Talent visas
  • Innovator founder visas
  • Start-up visas
  • Dependant visas

Personal Immigration

• ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain) applications
• British citizenship and naturalisation/registration applications
• British passport applications, including more complex applications based on treaty rights
• EU Settlement Scheme (late applications)
• Immigration issues in international surrogacy
• Full range of visa applications and extensions, including, but not limited to:
  • Visitor visas
  • Student visas
  • Graduate visas
  • Family visas
  • Fiancé visas
  • Spouse and unmarried partner visas
  • High potential individual visas

Examples

• Advising local authorities on various business and private immigration issues
• Assisting and advising a major hotel chain on immigration compliance
• Successfully challenged a civil penalty notice against a company at risk of closure
• Advising a global customer experience (CX) technology and services company on immigration options for its global mobility needs, including sponsorship of skilled workers and sponsor licence compliance
• Successfully negotiated the re-instatement of a Sponsor Licence for a UK Academy
• Advising on the immigration aspects of a care home acquisition and TUPE transfer of sponsored workers
• Conducted a right to work audit of a well-known restaurant chain and advised on key areas of risk and compliance
• Advised a multinational logistics company on the structure of their sponsor licence and, as legal representative and Level 1 user, on managing the sponsor licence
• Managed the sponsor licence of one of the UK’s largest private healthcare providers
• Ongoing immigration assistance to a world-renowned, multi-venue arts complex in London
• Successfully obtained a sponsor licence for an international travel company, following previous rejection
• Advised many UK business on workforce planning and assistance with the implementation of strategies, working closely with internal HR and Legal teams
• Multiple family, work and visit visas granted to individuals and positive outcomes on applications for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) and British Citizenship.
• Delivered numerous immigration training sessions on sponsor licence compliance, managing migrant workers, immigration in the arts and education, including to the NHS, FTSE 100, university, charity, retail and hospitality clients.