Immigration & Asylum Accreditation Scheme (IAAS)

Information on the Law Society’s immigration and asylum accreditation scheme is not easy to obtain. Responsibility for the scheme is divided between several organisations, as follows:

-The LAA requires those providing advice and representation under an immigration legal aid contract to be accredited under the Law Society scheme. The LAA website (now incorporated into the Ministry of Justice’s website) is notoriously difficult to navigate but is the place to look for information about the requirement to be accredited (and reaccredited).

-The Law Society The accreditation scheme is run by the Law Society. The Law Society website is the place to look for information about the requirements of the scheme. Guidance on the standards you need to achieve at each level is extremely scant. The current ‘Guidance’ simply lays out the broad areas of knowledge and understanding that are required.

The Immigration & Asylum accreditation scheme has three stages designed for practitioners with different levels of experience of immigration and asylum practice.

Stages to the accreditation:

• trainee casework assistant – accreditation members can practice at this probationary stage for nine months before becoming accredited as a casework assistant.
• casework assistant – this interim accreditation is for applicants and can remain at this stage for up to one year
• senior caseworker – accreditation members must be fully accredited at this stage in order to be paid by the LAA

Senior caseworkers may also apply to be accredited as a supervising senior caseworker

Casework assistants can only conduct tasks delegated by senior caseworkers from their own caseload. They cannot have conduct of cases or matters

Senior caseworkers have conduct of all matters and delegate work to casework assistants.

Supervising senior caseworkers is the highest level and can have conduct of all matters and supervision of all caseworkers.