PLENA
Professional Services Directory
What this is: a directory of official regulators and registers for legal practitioners and immigration advisers, organised by country.
What this is NOT: a list of vetted partner professionals. PlenaProof has no financial relationship with any listed body and earns no commission from referrals.
Free resources first. Every section lists no-cost legal aid and official registers before any paid options.
Last verified: April 23, 2026.
Always verify before you engage. Regulators publish "find an adviser" registers. Use them — confirm the person you intend to hire is currently registered, in good standing, and authorised at the level your matter requires. PLENA links to regulators; PlenaProof does not vet individuals. Anyone offering immigration or legal advice without proper authorisation may be operating illegally.
Legal — Bar Associations & Law Societies
To verify a lawyer's credentials or find one in good standing, contact the relevant bar association or law society in their jurisdiction. Most maintain searchable registers of admitted advocates.
Africa
Africa — Regional
- East Africa — East Africa Law Society (EALS). Regional federation of national bars from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Zanzibar, and Ethiopia. Useful if your matter crosses East African borders.
- Continental — African Bar Association (AfBA). Continental voice of the legal profession in Africa.
United Kingdom
United States
- National professional body — American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA does not license lawyers (state bars do), but it publishes lawyer-referral resources and consumer guides.
- State licensing — every U.S. state has its own bar (e.g. State Bar of California, New York State Bar Association). Licensing and discipline happen at state level. Search the bar of the state where the lawyer practises.
Canada
Australia
- National peak body — Law Council of Australia. Represents the Australian legal profession through state and territory law societies and bar associations.
Verifying a lawyer. Ask for their registration number and the body they are admitted to. Then go to that body's website and search the public register. A real lawyer in good standing will encourage this; anyone who refuses or stalls is a red flag.
Immigration — Adviser Regulators
Many countries restrict who can give immigration advice for a fee. Working with an unregulated adviser ("ghost adviser") can lead to bad applications, wasted money, and immigration consequences. Always confirm regulation before you pay anyone.
United Kingdom
- Statutory regulator — Immigration Advice Authority (IAA). Formerly the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC); rebranded January 16, 2025. Regulates over 3,800 individual immigration advisers and over 2,000 organisations.
- Find a regulated adviser — IAA Adviser Finder. Confirm the adviser is currently registered and authorised at the level your matter requires (Level 1 = basic, Level 2 = casework, Level 3 = tribunal advocacy).
- Note — solicitors regulated by the SRA, barristers regulated by the BSB, and CILEx members are also authorised to give immigration advice without separate IAA registration.
United States
- Professional association — American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Voluntary association of attorneys and law professors who practise immigration law. Includes a "Find an Immigration Lawyer" search.
- Important — in the United States, only licensed attorneys and accredited representatives recognised by the Department of Justice may provide immigration legal services. "Notarios" or document preparers without these credentials cannot legally give immigration advice.
Canada
- Statutory regulator — College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC). Regulates Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs). Maintains the public register of authorised consultants.
- Note — Canadian lawyers in good standing with their provincial law society may also provide immigration advice without separate CICC registration.
Australia
Africa & rest of world
Most African and Middle Eastern countries do not have a single statutory immigration adviser regulator equivalent to the UK's IAA. In these cases:
- Use a lawyer registered with the bar association of your destination country (see Legal section above).
- Contact the destination embassy in your country directly for visa and immigration questions — embassy guidance is free and authoritative.
- For refugee or asylum matters, contact UNHCR or your nearest UNHCR field office. UNHCR-registered partner organisations provide free legal help to people of concern.
Warning signs of an unregulated adviser: guarantees of visa or asylum success, unusually high fees, requests for cash only, refusal to provide registration details, pressure to sign documents without translation, asking for original documents to be kept by them. Walk away.
Free Legal Aid & Public Help
If you cannot afford a lawyer, free or reduced-cost help may be available. The organisations below either provide free legal advice directly or help you find providers who do.
United States
- LawHelp.org — finds free legal aid programmes by state. Operated by Pro Bono Net.
- Legal Services Corporation — lsc.gov. Federally funded; supports legal aid offices nationwide. Useful "Find Legal Aid" tool.
United Kingdom
- Citizens Advice — citizensadvice.org.uk. Free advice on legal, debt, housing, and immigration matters across England and Wales. Offices in most towns.
- Civil Legal Advice — for legal aid eligibility in England and Wales: gov.uk/civil-legal-advice.
International / Refugees
- UNHCR — UN Refugee Agency — help.unhcr.org. Country-by-country guidance for refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless persons. Lists local UNHCR-recognised free legal aid partners.
- International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) — refugeerights.org. Free legal services for refugees and displaced people; works internationally.
Africa
- Legal Aid South Africa — legal-aid.co.za. Statutory body providing free legal services to people who cannot afford them.
- Most African bar associations (see Legal section above) operate pro bono schemes or refer to legal aid clinics. Contact your country's bar directly for guidance.
How to Use This Directory
Step 1 — Identify the right type of help
A lawyer handles legal disputes, contracts, and litigation. An immigration adviser handles visa, residence, citizenship, and asylum applications. In some countries the same person can do both; in others they're separately regulated. Choose the directory section that matches your need.
Step 2 — Identify the right country
Always work with someone regulated in the country where your matter will be decided. A UK immigration adviser cannot file your application in Kenya. A Kenyan advocate cannot represent you in a U.S. court.
Step 3 — Verify before you pay
Before paying for any consultation:
- Get the adviser's full legal name and registration number.
- Go to the regulator's official website (linked above) and search the public register.
- Confirm the registration is current, not lapsed or suspended.
- Confirm the adviser is authorised at the level your matter requires.
- Get a written fee quote before any work begins.
Step 4 — If something goes wrong
Every regulator listed above accepts complaints from clients. If your adviser misled you, took your money without doing the work, or behaved unprofessionally, file a complaint with the regulator who licenses them. This is how regulators identify and remove bad actors from the profession.
If Your Country Is Not Listed
This directory covers a small subset of jurisdictions. If your country is not listed, the following always work:
- Search "[your country] bar association" or "[your country] law society" — most countries have one. Confirm it's the official statutory body before relying on it.
- Contact the embassy of your destination country in your country of residence. Embassies provide free, authoritative guidance on visa and legal matters relating to their country.
- Ask UNHCR if you're a refugee, asylum seeker, or stateless person — UNHCR maintains country-specific guidance and partner referrals.
- Use the African Bar Association (linked above) as a starting point if you're in an African country not listed individually — they can refer you to the relevant national bar.
If you'd like to see your country added to this directory, email the link to the official regulator (the statutory bar association or immigration regulator, not a private firm) to hello@joinplena.com. We add countries when we can verify the regulator is current and live.
About this directory
PLENA Global LLC compiled this directory using publicly available information from each listed regulator. URLs were verified on the date shown at the top of this page. PlenaProof has no commercial relationship with any listed body, receives no referral payments, and does not vouch for the conduct of individual professionals registered with these bodies.
Regulators occasionally restructure, rebrand, or change URLs (the UK's OISC → IAA in January 2025 is a recent example). If you encounter a broken link, please email hello@joinplena.com and we will update the entry.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. The directory is informational only; whom you choose to engage and what they advise you to do is between you and them.