Slough Immigration Aid Unit
Slough Immigration Aid Unit

Make a Donation

Contact us by email or phone for advice

Slough Immigration Aid Unit

 

52 Chalvey High Street

Slough 

Berkshire

SL1 2SQ

 

Tel: 01753 246 730 (office)

E-mail: info.siau@gmail.com

0798 595 6757

 

Or use our contact form.

Office hours

10.30am- 5pm

Monday - Thursday

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner


OISC is responsible for regulating immigration advisers by ensuring they are competent and will act in the best interest of their clients.

OSIC Registration number: F200500137

 

Charity Registration number: 1064293

Our Staff

Shabana Bokhari is a Level 3 OISC regulated adviser so is able to represent immigration clients before the First-tier and Upper Tribunals, as well as to the immigration authorities. She has worked at SIAU since January 2018, and with many different immigration firms and consultants since 2010, most recently with Newland Chase,  Visa Legal and Henleaze Law. She has extensive experience of all aspects of immigration and nationality law and wants to increase her experience of advocacy before the Tribunals.  Shabana currently works at SIAU one day a week only. She says, "I am enthusiastic, reliable and have superb communication skills. I am adaptable, enjoy challenges, work great in a team but also work well autonomously. I work well under pressure as I have great experience working in fast paced environments and have also developed great client facing skills." Shabana speaks Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, has an LLB from the University of East London and has worked towards an LLM in human rights.

Parveen Akhter is a Level 2 OISC regulated adviser, who had worked at Hudson Legal for over 13 years before joining SIAU in January to April 2018, and then returning here in September 2019. She has many years’ experience in dealing with immigration, asylum, discretionary leave, nationality and European applications and works closely with clients to put their cases to the immigration authorities and support them through the process. Parveen works four days a week with SIAU, and specialises in domestic abuse applications.  Parveen says, ‘I am able to hold my ground in a highly pressurised situation and calm the nerves of my clients with a professional and informed manner. Hence, I am not fazed by varying immigration enquiries/developments as they present themselves.’ Outside work, Parveen is interested in growing her own and her family’s food, reflexology and reading.

 

Azhar Chohan has worked in immigration and asylum law for over 30 years. He has worked in three different law centres and with several solicitors' firms and OISC-regulated organisations, in private practice, and  was a trustee of SIAU from when we started work in March 2006 until October 2007. He is the part-time immigration caseworker for Slough's Member of Parliament, since 2005. He is a trained advocate and represents people's cases at the First-tier and Upper Tribunals. He trains other advisers in immigration and nationality law.  Azhar is regulated by OISC at Level 3 and is also qualified as a senior caseworker/supervisor with IAAS. He is a part-time consultant with SIAU and also with RC Immigration Services, representing appeals as required.

 

Our Trustees

Sue Shutter is the Chair of Trustees. She is a Level 2 OISC regulated adviser who regularly volunteers at SIAU, and is also a trustee of the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens. She worked part-time for the previous Member of Parliament for Slough, doing constituency immigration casework, and before that worked at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants for 22 years. She wrote the first three editions of the JCWI Immigration, nationality and refugee law handbook and is an active member of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association.

Mai Knibbs has been a solicitor, a counsellor, a dyslexia therapist, a Reiki practitioner, Alexander Technique tutor and a teacher.  She is now retired and cares for her husband. She is a Quaker with a Catholic interfaith background. Since student days, she has supported local and national initiatives for peace, justice and understanding.

 

Ray Barkley is SIAU's treasurer.  He worked for Mars for many years; he is now the secretary of the Slough branch of UNITE the Union, and active in Slough Trades Council and the Berkshire Credit Union. He was a visitor to Harmondsworth detenriton centre for many years. He is also a trustee of Slough Refugee Support and the chair of trustees of Slough Labour Memorial Hall.

 

Nazia Shabir grew up in Slough and lives here still. She is a law graduate and has passed her Legal Practice Course, preparatory to qualifying as a solicitor.  She has provided one-to-one tuition for children for many years, mainly in English writing and granmmar, and now works as a family support worker for Voice of the Child, providing reports for legal proceedings including recording child centred supervision, working with court orders and safeguarding.  She has volunteered supporting SIAU’s casework since October 2021, and with Henleaze Law since October 2022, as a paralegal and trainee. She became a SIAU trustee in December 2022.

 

Shabana Saeed is a qualified social worker and team manager, specialising in child protection and safeguarding work. She has worked with CAFCASS and several local authorities since 2007.  She became a trustee in April 2023 and says: “I am keen to support a local small charity that offers support to people from all walks of life who require guidance in immigration applications. Some may be victims of domestic abuse or abused in some form by the complicated legal system that they may not understand, especially when English is not their first language. I have a special connection with immigration work because my parents were young migrants and came to settle in the UK with their parents. I am keen to be connected to a charity like this that aims to offer legal support and guidance to community members who see UK as their safe base and home.”

 

Print | Sitemap
© Slough Immigration Aid Unit