Privacy Notice

The Company is a migration business which provides immigration and visa application services to its clients. The Company must process personal data (including special categories of personal data) so that it can provide these services – in doing so, the Company acts as a data controller.

You may give your personal details to the Company directly, such as on an application or registration form or via our website, or we may collect them from another source with your permission such as government agencies, partner referrals or family and friends. The Company must have a legal basis for processing your personal data. For the purposes of providing you with immigration services and/or information relating to immigration matters relevant to you, we will only use your personal data in accordance with this privacy statement. We will comply with current data protection laws at all times.

Contents

1. Collection and use of personal data
   1. Purpose of processing and legal basis
   2. Legitimate interest
   3. Statutory/contractual requirement
   4. Recipients of data
   5. Categories of data
   6. Sources of data
2. Overseas transfers
3. . Data retention
4. Your rights
5. Cookies
6. Login files
7. Links to external sites
8. Sale of the business
9. . Data security
10. Changes to this privacy statement
11. Complaints or queries

1. Collection and use of personal data
a. Purpose of processing and legal basis

The Company will collect your personal data (which may include special categories of personal data) and will process your personal data for the purposes of providing you with immigration services. This includes for example, assessing your suitability for different visa types, updating our records, submitting visa applications on your behalf, developing and managing our services and relationship with you and other stakeholders and partners.

If you have opted-in we may also send you marketing information and news via email/text. You can opt-out from receiving these at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” when you receive these communications from us.

On some occasions we may be required to use your data for the purpose of investigating, reporting and detecting crime and also to comply with laws that apply to us. We may also use your information during the course of internal audits to demonstrate our compliance with certain industry standards.

We must have a legal basis to process your personal data. The legal basis we rely upon to offer our migration services to you is where we have a legitimate interest.

We process your special category data under the condition of ‘Explicit consent’ from Article 9 of the UK GDPR and your criminal offence data under the condition of ‘Consent’ from Schedule 1 of the DPA 2018. We request your consent to this processing in a written services agreement prior to the provision of services.

b. Legitimate interest
This is where the Company has a legitimate reason to process your data provided it is reasonable and does not go against what you would reasonably expect from us. Where the Company has relied on a legitimate interest to process your personal data our legitimate interests are as follows:

• Responding to an enquiry you have made via our website or email.
• Managing our records and keeping them up to date;
• Providing immigration services to you, including visas services (When we assist you with obtaining a visa, our collection and use of your personal information is dependent on the requirements of the country issuing the visa and will vary);
• Contacting you to seek your consent where we need it;
• Giving you information about similar products or services to those that you have used from us recently;
• Ensuring that we comply with any laws that apply to us;
• Demonstrating that have complied with certain industry standards;
• To meet the external audit requirements of the professional licensing bodies with which our immigration advisers are registered.

c. Statutory/contractual requirement
The Company has certain legal and contractual requirements to collect personal data (e.g. to comply with immigration and tax legislation, and in some circumstances safeguarding requirements). Our clients may require this personal data, and we may need your data to enter into a contract with you. If you do not give us the personal data we need to collect in order to comply with our statutory and legal requirements, we may not be able to continue to provide immigration services to you.

d. Recipient/s of data
The Company will process your personal data and/or sensitive personal data with the following recipients:

• Government agencies responsible for managing immigration into your chosen country of migration
• Partner companies who we may introduce you to that offer relevant migration services that may be of interest and assistance to you
• Your former employers who we may seek references from
• Our sister company Head Medical, if you require recruitment services in the country you are migrating to
• Auditors who are assessing the compliance and processes of the business to ensure its adherence to all relevant legislation, the professional licensing requirements of our immigration advisers and good practice guidance
• Third parties we use to deliver immigration services, for example software providers, file storage providers, finance systems, email marketing solution providers and website analytic companies.

e. Categories of data: The Company will collect the following personal data on you:
Personal data:

• Name, address, mobile no., email
• Nationality
• Marital Status
• Family Information
• Date/ Place of Birth
• Country of intended migration
• Government IDs such as National insurance no., birth certificate, passport No./ image • Employment History
• Profession/ Job Title
• Educational Background
• Military History (if applicable)
• Travel History
• Payment and Transaction Information

Where required for the provision of services, we collect certain personal documents such as passport copies, educational documents, CVs, visa copies, birth certificates, and other documents.

Special categories of personal data:

If, for example, we are handling your visa or immigration matter, additional special categories of personal data may be requested by the government agencies of the country you are migrating to, which can include:

• racial or ethnic origin
• Political opinions
• Religious beliefs
• Genetic data
• Biometric data
• Health information including whether you have a disability
• Criminal conviction(s)
• Sex and sexual orientation

f. Source of the personal data: The Company may source your personal data/special categories of personal data from:

• You directly
• Family
• Friends
• Government Agencies
• Former employers
• A referee whose details you previously provided to us
• Software providers who we use to support our services
• Cookies listed in section 5
• Publicly accessible sources such as LinkedIn

2. Overseas Transfers

The Company may transfer the information you provide to us to countries outside the UK and/or the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) for the purposes of providing you with immigration services. We will take steps to ensure adequate protections are in place to ensure the security of your information. The EEA comprises the EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

3. Data retention

The Company will retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purpose we collect it. Different laws and/ or regulations may also require us to keep different data for different periods of time (for example both the Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct 2014, approved by the Minister of Immigration in accordance with section 37(4) of the New Zealand Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007; and the Australian Migration (Migration Agents Code of Conduct) Regulations 2021, prescribed by the Migration (Migration Agents Code of Conduct) Regulations 2021, requires that we maintain each client file (visa application) for a period of no less than 7 years from closing the file, and make those records available for inspection on request by each authority).
Where the Company has obtained your consent to process your personal and special categories of personal data, we will do so in line with our retention policy. Upon expiry of that period the Company will seek further consent from you. Where consent is not sought/ granted the Company will cease to process your personal data and sensitive personal data.

4. Your rights

Please be aware that you have the following data protection rights:

• The right to be informed about the personal data the Company processes on you;
• The right of access to the personal data the Company processes on you;
• The right to rectification of your personal data;
• The right to erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances;
• The right to restrict processing of your personal data;
• The right to data portability in certain circumstances;
• The right to object to the processing of your personal data that was based on a public or legitimate interest;
• The right not to be subjected to automated decision making and profiling; and • The right to withdraw consent at any time.

Where you have consented to the Company processing your personal data and sensitive personal data you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by contacting dataprivacy@headimmigration.com. Please note that if you withdraw your consent to further processing that does not affect any processing done prior to the withdrawal of that consent, or which is done according to another legal basis.

There may be circumstances where the Company will still need to process your data for legal or official reasons. Where this is the case, we will tell you and we will restrict the data to only what is necessary for those specific reasons.

If you believe that any of your data that the Company processes is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us using the details above and we will take reasonable steps to check its accuracy and correct it where necessary.
You can also contact us using the above details if you want us to restrict the type or amount of data we process for you, access your personal data or exercise any of the other rights listed above.

5. Cookies

We may obtain data about you from cookies. These are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Cookies also enable us to deliver more personalised content.

Head Immigration may set and access Cookies on your computer. Cookies may be placed on your computer when you visit certain parts of the Website. Head Immigration use these to track visitors, their usage of the Website, their access preferences and for advertising. In most cases we will not be able to identify you from the information we collect using these technologies.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. Please note that in a few cases some of our website features may not function if you remove cookies from your browser.

6. Login Files

We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site, track users’ movements, and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

7. Links to external websites

The Company’s website may contain links to other external websites. Please be aware that the Company is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. When you leave our site we encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by the Company’s website.

8. Sale of business

If the Company’s business is sold or integrated with another business your details may be disclosed to our advisers and any prospective purchasers and their advisers and will be passed on to the new owners of the business. Where the sale of the business results in the transfer of your details to a different data controller we will notify you of this.

9. Data Security
The Company takes every precaution to protect users’ information including measures like password protection, limited access, gateways/ firewalls, and encryption to protect against unauthorised access and ensure the integrity and confidentiality of information.

Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, immigration advisers or our accounts team) are granted access to your information.

The Company uses all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal information. However, you should be aware that the use of email/ the Internet is not entirely secure and for this reason the Company cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal information which is transferred from you or to you via email/the Internet.

If you share a device with others, we recommend that you do not select the “remember my details” function when that option is offered.

10. Changes to this privacy statement

We will update this privacy statement from time to time. We will post any changes on the statement with revision dates. If we make any material changes, we will notify you.

11. Complaints or queries

If you wish to complain about this privacy notice or any of the procedures set out in it please contact: dataprivacy@headimmigration.com. You also have the right to raise concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113 or at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/, or any other relevant authority should your personal data be processed outside of the UK and you believe that your data protection rights have not been adhered to.