Anna Blackden

Ranked as an 'Associate to Watch' by Chambers and Partners and recognised as a 'Key Lawyer' in The Legal 500, Anna’s unique experience working in house at a UKVI licensed student sponsor has helped her assist numerous institutions protect their sponsor licences and minimise compliance risks.

Anna is regarded as a subject matter expert in the field of student visa sponsorship, delivering webinars and training on student sponsor compliance for key stakeholders in the international student sector including UKCISA (UK Council for International Student Affairs) and the Independent School Bursar’s Association (ISBA).

Having personally participated and successfully passed UKVI sponsor compliance audits, Anna now draws on this experience to assist with sponsor licence applications and to conduct UKVI mock audits for schools, colleges, universities and employers. Anna also regularly provides bespoke training for clients on sponsor compliance so staff are better equipped to protect their employer’s valuable UKVI sponsor licence status.

Anna also has significant expertise in assisting individuals with applications outside the UK’s points-based immigration system, including asylum, human rights, judicial review and citizenship applications as well as advising EU nationals on their UK immigration status in a post Brexit UK.

What people say about Anna 

Recent Personal Immigration Highlights include:

Family Member Visas

• Supported a Canadian national successfully obtain immigration permission to remain in the UK as the Parent of a Settled Child. Matter highly complex as a result of client defending civil proceedings. Anna also successfully secured his release from immigration detention when he returned to the UK before his immigration application was filed.
• Assisted an Indian national successfully settle on the family route having first obtained a UK spouse visa in 2019. Due to their international careers, the married couple had never cohabited since their marriage 8 years previously. Anna helped the couple submit supporting evidence to demonstrate they remained in a genuine and subsisting relationship.

Asylum and Human Rights Applications

• Advised a US national apply for immigration permission on human rights and compassionate grounds. Anna’s client needed to remain in the UK beyond his 6 month visitor permission so he could provide end of life care and support to his British partner who was terminally ill with a brain tumour.
• Assisted a highly vulnerable British Citizen with advanced stage Parkinson’s to secure immigration permission for her long term Filipino carer, initially as a result of judicial review proceedings. Since 2018, Anna has successfully made 3 further applications for her client’s carer to remain in the UK on private life and human rights grounds.
• Assisted an elderly Zimbabwean national achieve settlement in the UK on protection grounds, carefully preparing the application to demonstrate upcoming presidential elections would be unlikely to result in permanent regime change.

Student and Child Student Visas

• Anna advised a family from Hong Kong whose teenage son had experienced serious complications with his study visa application. As a result of Anna’s in depth knowledge of the Child Student and Student visa sponsorship routes, Anna worked closely with the family and student sponsor to ensure he was able to make a successful new application and resume his studies in the UK.
• Assisted a 16 year old Ukranian national with a Child Student visa application, successfully navigating visa restrictions as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. More recently, Anna has advised this client on switching to the Ukraine Scheme (which means he should also qualify for home fees status for a future Higher Education course).

Recent Education Work Highlights Include: 

Home Office Mock Audits (Staff and Student)

• Anna recently conducted two Home Office Mock Audits, one for a University and the other for a publicly funded further education college. Both were Higher Education Providers with a Track Record of Compliance and also held separate licences to sponsor staff. The Mock Audits covered both staff and student visa sponsorship. Doyle Clayton’s findings and recommendations led to both education providers significantly strengthening their sponsor compliance and right to study/work checks processes.

UKVI Implications of Corporate Transactions/Educational Oversight Changes

• Providing advice to a private education group on the immigration implications of a major corporate transaction where 3 independent schools within the group held student sponsor licences to recruit international students.
• Advising a prestigious independent school on its reporting and sponsorship duties following its complete takeover of another independent school, also holding a student sponsor licence.
• Advising a number of independent schools on the UKVI implications on their student sponsor licences of a change in their Educational Oversight rating following a statutory inspection.

Managing Student Sponsor Licences

• Anna is instructed on an ongoing basis by a number of independent schools to manage their Student sponsor licences, including applying for Basic Compliance Assessments and CAS allocation renewal as well as answering day to day queries re right to study, assigning CAS, care arrangements for u18’s, sponsored student record keeping, attendance monitoring and reporting.

Sponsoring Staff

• Anna advises a number of independent schools on the recruitment of non UK teachers on Skilled Worker Visas. Anna recently assisted a prestigious independent school where the visa sponsorship of a new MFL teacher had been subjected to significant delays and was at risk of withdrawal by the Home Office. Anna and her colleague Malini Skandachanmugarasan - Doyle Clayton liaised closely with the Home Office to process the application and enable the teacher to start his language teaching role for the start of term.

Webinars and Podcasts include:

• Anna delivered a webinar to the Independent School Bursars Association on ‘UKVI Sponsor Licences: Avoiding Pitfalls when Schools Merge
• Be Prepared for a Home Office compliance visit: Top tips for student sponsors
• Enrolling International Students and Student Visa Sponsorship in Independent Schools
• Sponsoring Under 18's in the Child Student and Student visa routes | Webinar UKCISA & Doyle Clayton 
• Anna delivered a session at the UK Council for International Student Affairs Annual Conference 2024, on FE Sponsors: Navigating sponsorship challenges

Experience and Qualifications:

• Qualified as a Solicitor in March 2005
• Specialist in Immigration Law since 2006
• The Law Society Immigration and Asylum Accreditation (Senior Caseworker) held since 2006

Areas of expertise

• Personal Immigration advice
• Standard Visitor visa advice
• UK Family Visa advice
• Education Immigration advice
• Student Sponsor licence and student visa services
• Student and Child Student Visas
  
• Sponsoring staff and worker sponsor licence applications