If someone you love has just been taken, or there are officers at your door, call us now.
Take a breath. You’ve found the right people. We do this work, including at 3am.
You’re probably reading this because someone has just been detained, or there are immigration officers at the door, or you’re holding a Home Office letter with a flight date on it. Imran Shah is experienced in urgent removal and injunction matters, including out-of-hours filings via the Upper Tribunal / Administrative Court duty-judge system. The most useful thing you can do right now is pick up the phone.
Call us 24/7. If we’re already on another emergency, a duty solicitor aims to call you back within 30 minutes — or by 9am the next working day at the latest. First call is free. SRA-regulated.
Reviewed by Imran Shah — immigration & litigation solicitor.
SRA #509359 · Admitted 2012 · Verify on SRA register
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For genuine immigration emergencies — detention, removal directions, dawn raid, urgent deadline. We aim to call within 30 minutes; by 9am next working day at the latest. SRA #809071.
Who this page is for
When you need an emergency immigration solicitor
Most immigration problems run on a timeline of weeks or months. A handful don’t. If any of the situations below match, call now — the time available is measured in hours, not days.
Detention at a removal centre
Yarl's Wood, Brook House, Tinsley House, Harmondsworth, Colnbrook or Dungavel. There are rights from the moment of detention — but they only protect the detainee if someone activates them.
Detained at a UK port or airport
Border Force can refuse entry and put someone on the next available flight the same day. Families are often not told for hours.
Dawn raid / Immigration Enforcement at the door
Officers usually arrive 6am–8am. What you do in the first few minutes — warrant check, right to silence, who you call — changes outcomes.
Removal directions / flight booked
The Home Office can serve removal directions with as little as 72 hours' notice. Charter flights can give less.
Visa just expired or about to
Paragraph 39E of the Immigration Rules permits short overstays (typically up to 14 days) for exceptional reasons. The window is narrow.
Refusal letter and appeal deadline
14 days from the date on the letter (28 if overseas, 5 if detained). The Tribunal has limited tolerance for missed deadlines.
Detention
If someone has been detained — what to do in the next hour
At a removal centre. The detained person must be given a Home Office form called IS91R— the formal document setting out why they are being held. If they haven’t been given it, they should ask for it as their first step. Inside every removal centre, the Detained Duty Advice Scheme (DDAS)provides a free 30-minute session with a duty solicitor — useful as triage to understand the basis for detention, but a single 30-minute session won’t carry the case. For ongoing work — bail, challenges to detention, refusal appeals — a solicitor needs to be retained on the case. After 8 days in detention, the detained person has a legal right to apply for bail to the First-tier Tribunal; a hearing is usually listed within 3 to 7 days.
At a UK port or airport.Border Force can refuse entry within hours of landing and put someone on the next available flight the same day. A solicitor can contact the port directly, identify the responsible officer, apply for Temporary Admission so the person can remain while their status is sorted, and — where there’s a clear error or human-rights ground — apply for an emergency injunction to stop the return flight.
At a dawn raid.Officers usually arrive between 6am and 8am. Before you open the door: officers need a warrant for a residential address — you can ask through the door whether they have one; if they do, they must show it. Once they are inside, the detained person has the right to remain silent. Stay calm. Be polite. Don’t obstruct or argue with officers.Silence is a right; antagonism damages the case. Don’t sign anything — at the address or at a removal centre — without legal advice. If officers are at the door right now, call us before you open it.
Expired visa or overstayer
Visa expired? The narrow 14-day window
Paragraph 39E of the Immigration Rulespermits the Home Office to disregard short overstays (typically up to 14 days) where there is a good reason — an in-time application that was refused without a right of appeal, a medical emergency, or other exceptional circumstances. It is a narrow window with limited grounds.
Long overstays carry serious consequences: an in-country switch becomes much harder, a re-entry ban of up to 10 years can apply if removed, and the wrong move — for example, a refused in-country application made as an overstayer — can trigger enforcement action. A “voluntary return” before any enforcement action substantially reduces re-entry-ban risk; some routes (Article 8 family life, Long Residence) survive overstaying, most don’t. The right answer is fact-sensitive and the right time to take advice is the moment you realise the visa has expired — not after the next mis-step.
Refused visa + urgent injunction
Refusal letter, missed deadline, or removal scheduled
Appeal deadlinesare short and strict: 14 days from the date on the refusal letter if you’re in the UK, 28 days if you’re overseas, and 5 days if you’re detained. Out-of-time appeals are possible with an exceptional reason (medical emergency, bereavement, catastrophic service failure) but weaken with every day. If the extension is refused, a fresh claim under Paragraph 353of the Immigration Rules may be available where there’s new evidence or a new legal ground.
An emergency injunctionis a court order that stops a scheduled removal while a legal challenge is heard. We have obtained injunctions within four hours of a scheduled flight. The routes available are: an automatic suspension where an in-country appeal right is pending (the removal stops without going to court at all), an urgent application to the Upper Tribunal or the High Court Administrative Court using the out-of-hours duty-judge system, and — as a last resort — a Strasbourg application under Rule 39 where someone faces a real risk of serious harm in the destination country. The threshold the court applies is “serious question to be tried” — lower than winning the case today, and enough to buy time for the full challenge.
How it works
What happens when you call
The first call is the work. There is no intake queue and no callback gauntlet — the person who picks up takes full instructions and starts.
- 1
Minutes 0–30 — we listen first, then move.
We ask for the basics: the person's name and immigration status, what the Home Office has served, the removal date if there is one, which centre they're in if they're detained, any pending appeal or application. While you're talking, we're working out whether an emergency injunction, a bail application, or an urgent appeal is the right next step.
- 2
Minutes 30–90 — we start the filings.
If an injunction is needed, we draft the covering letter, the grounds document, and the statement of facts. If a bail application is needed, we identify the right Tribunal and start gathering address and sureties information. We run both in parallel when the situation demands it.
- 3
Minutes 90 and onwards — we notify, confirm, and update.
The Home Office legal team is notified the moment a filing goes in. The Tribunal or court confirms receipt. You hear from us directly — what's been filed, what's coming next, what you should and shouldn't do in the meantime.
Why us
SRA-regulated, named-solicitor practice
We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority — firm #809071. SRA regulation matters in an emergency because it gives you real recourse if anything goes wrong: a statutory regulator, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal as a backstop, and the SRA Compensation Fund. SRA-regulated solicitors are also authorised to file Upper Tribunal and High Court applications, and to represent on judicial review and same-day removal challenges — which is the specific capability an emergency case needs.
Imran Shah leads our emergency practice. Imran works on immigration and litigation cases that need careful preparation and a clear strategy from day one — spouse visa refusals, ILR appeals, judicial reviews, complex Home Office disputes. The kind of work where one wrong line in a witness statement can derail a case for years.
The 24-hour promise.Mon–Fri 9am–6pm calls are answered live by a qualified team member who takes instructions immediately. Out of hours (evenings, weekends, bank holidays including Christmas Day), the on-call rota aims for a duty solicitor to call you back within 30 minutes — or by 9am the next working day at the latest. The rota is structured so the person who calls back is qualified to act on the case, not just to take a message.
Legal aidis available for asylum cases and for challenging the lawfulness of detention itself — means and merits tested. We assess on your first call and, if you qualify, apply alongside the urgent work.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Your Solicitor
Three SRA-regulated solicitors. Direct access.
Imran Shah
Immigration & Litigation Solicitor
Imran handles immigration and litigation cases that need methodical preparation and clear strategy.
SRA #509359
Humaira Anjum
Immigration & Litigation Solicitor
Humaira walks families through every stage of immigration and litigation matters with calm, careful guidance.
SRA #663190
Sannah Khatoon
Litigation & Housing Disrepair Solicitor
Sannah recovers damages and forces repairs in housing disrepair claims — usually on no win, no fee.
SRA #654258
Call now. Don’t wait.
Every hour without legal representation reduces your options.
Our solicitors are available right now. Mon–Fri 9–6 calls are answered live; out of hours we return your call within 30 minutes.
Last reviewed: June 2026 by Imran Shah (SRA #509359). Page URL: https://www.abrahamssolicitors.co.uk/emergency-immigration-solicitor/.