Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner to be abolished in major shake up

Via Free Movement:

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, or OISC as we all call it, is to be abolished in the new year. It will be replaced by a new-look Immigration Advice Authority ...

The Immigration Advice Agency will apparently have a new leadership structure, “enhanced” workforce, and strengthened processes ... there will also be a comprehensive rebrand with new logo, social media channels and all that malarkey.

... The big change is to be officially unveiled along with a new corporate plan on 16 January 2025. We’ll all learn more at that point. We hope.

All this rather seems to have come out of nowhere. As far as we’re aware there has been no consultation on these issues ...

More: Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner to be abolished in major shake up

Update:

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, or OISC to everyone who knew it, is being renamed from today as the Immigration Advice Authority. A colourful new logo is also being deployed.

There is not a huge amount to say about it other than it is a pain.

It is a pain for all existing OISC firms and organisations, which will have to re-do all of their literature and websites and so on. The Immigration Advice Agency is setting a deadline of 2 June 2025 by which they expect organisations to have completed that exercise. Obviously, that imposes a cost on those organisations, the majority of which are not-for-profits.

... and it is a pain for advice-seekers, at least in the short term. Because no-one has ever heard of the Immigration Advice Authority before. The transition seems to have been a closely guarded secret with no prior public consultation.

More: OISC renamed Immigration Advice Authority from 16 January 2025

Here’s the new IAA web presence:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/immigration-advice-authority

And here’s their page for Information for advice seekers

However, their links to their advice finder and adviser register don’t work at the moment:

https://portal.oisc.gov.uk/s/adviser-finder

Will check again later (we need to update our advicelocal links)

Cheers - Shawn

Now working:

https://portal.oisc.gov.uk/s/adviser-finder