TOVA LEGAL provides advice and representation on UK immigration and nationality matters. We are regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority at Level 3. This page explains how we handle personal information. If you have a question about any of it, get in touch through the contact page on this site.

What we collect

If you contact us through this website, we collect your name, your contact details and whatever you tell us about your situation.

If you go on to instruct us, we collect what the case requires. That usually covers your immigration history, passport and visa details, address history, family details, employment and financial records, and any correspondence with the Home Office. Some matters also call for sensitive information such as medical records or details of criminal proceedings. We ask for these only where they are relevant to your case.

This website is hosted on Squarespace, which records basic technical data such as your IP address and the pages you visit.

Why we use it

To answer your enquiry, to advise you, to prepare and submit applications, to represent you before the Home Office and the tribunals, to take payment, and to meet the record keeping duties that apply to regulated immigration advisers. Where we send updates on immigration law, we do so because you asked for them, and you can stop them whenever you want.

Who sees it

The Home Office and other government departments, courts and tribunals, and any barrister, interpreter or expert instructed on your case. Our regulator is entitled to inspect client files. Our insurers and accountants see information where it is necessary. The companies that supply our email, document storage and website systems hold data on our behalf under contract.

Some of those systems store data outside the UK. Where that happens we rely on the safeguards permitted under UK data protection law.

We do not sell your information and we do not share it for advertising.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that do not become cases are deleted after twelve months. Client files are kept for at least six years after the file closes, as required of regulated advisers. Accounting records are kept for six years.

Cookies

We use cookies to run the site and to understand how it is used. Anything beyond the essentials is set only if you agree through the banner shown on your first visit. You can change that choice at any time.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or object to the way we are using it. Some limits apply, since we cannot delete records we are required to keep, or release material covered by legal privilege. Use the contact page to make a request and we will reply within one month.

Complaints

Tell us first, through the contact page. If you are still unhappy you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. A complaint about the immigration advice itself comes to us first, and then to the Immigration Advice Authority.

We update this page when our practices change. The date above shows the last revision.