FIAP Conference 2026
How Might We Create an Immigration Legal Advice Movement Led by Lived Experience?
INVITE
FIAP Conference 2026: What Next for Immigration Advice in the UK?
How Might We Create an Immigration Legal Advice Movement Led by Lived Experience?
30th April 2026, 9.30 - 4.00
Clifford Chance Law Firm, 10 Upper Bank Street, London E14 5JJ (in-person)
FIAP Partners & By Invite Only
Key note speakers: Dr Jo Wilding, IRMO, Mohamed Omar, and Dr Edward Mynott
Guest speakers, facilitators and panellists include: Clifford Chance, Centring Lived Experience in FIAP Advisory Panel, Immigration Advice Authority, Lloyds Bank Foundation, and NACCOM
We'd like to invite you to our first FIAP Mini Conference!
The UK’s asylum system is in flux. Major reforms, gaps in legal aid, and rising anti-immigrant rhetoric are reshaping who can access support and how. In this moment of change, we must ask: How might we create an immigration legal advice movement that centres lived experience?
Our aims of the conference
This conference brings together practitioners, community advocates, policymakers, and people with experience of migration to explore how immigration advice can be reimagined through systemic change. Together, we will explore how:
- Lived experience can lead the design and delivery of immigration advice that is accessible, compassionate, and effective.
- We can build resilient, community-led networks to meet rising demand and fill gaps left by stretched legal aid.
- Together we could strategically address asylum system reforms through systemic change that centers immigration and racial justice.
Guest speakers
Guest speakers include Dr Jo Wilding, Mohamed Omar, and Dr Edward Mynott, alongside representatives from Clifford Chance, Lloyds Bank Foundation, the Immigration Advice Authority, NACCOM, and the FIAP advisory panel on centring lived experience, ensuring that the voices of those with direct experience of immigration advice are at the heart of the discussion.
Schedule
Places are limited to 40 guests.
Refreshments will be available throughout the day, and lunch will also be provided.
The morning session: will focus on the future of immigration advice in the UK with keynote speaker Dr Jo Wilding (Researcher and Associate Professor in Law, University of Sussex), lived experience leadership, with the Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation (IRMO) and racial justice with speakers Mohamed Omar (Refugee Action) and Ellen Kerslake (Clifford Chance).
The afternoon session: will focus on case studies from NACCOM members on the practicalities of embedding and delivering advice services within organisations with Leon Elliot from NACCOM. Followed by experienced Tribunal Advocate, Dr Edward Mynott, on representing people before the first-tier tribunal; hints and tips, the practical realities, and procedural steps.
There will also be guest panellists:
- Centring Lived Experience in FIAP Advisory Panel
- Karen Eyre-White, Director of Service Delivery, Immigration Advice Authority (IAA)
- Rachel Marshall, Wales Manager, Lloyds Bank Foundation
Booking
Join us to imagine and shape a future where immigration advice is not just reactive, but transformative - driven by the voices and expertise of those whose lives it impacts most.
Places are free of charge, but limited - the capacity of the conference is 40 guests.
We ask that only one person attends per organisation, and please only book if you can definitely attend.
If you have any questions about what to expect or need more information, please contact Lizzie: LizzieH@refugee-action.org.uk or Julie: juliem@refugee-action.org.uk