John Vassiliou

Solicitor, Shepherd and Wedderburn

John heads up the immigration team at Shepherd and Wedderburn. Working with SMEs through to multinationals, John and his team offer guidance and support on the UK’s sponsor licence and visa system, including advice on offshore work within UK waters, short-term work visits, and compliance issues. John also advises universities, research institutes and overseas higher education providers on student sponsor compliance, audits, and governance.

Alongside his commercial work, John is an expert in British nationality law and routinely advises on personal immigration strategies and migration, including work with exceptionally talented individuals in tech and the arts.

John prioritises keeping his clients out of court, but if litigation becomes necessary, he is an experienced litigator. He has represented clients in appeals at the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal, and acted as instructing solicitor in immigration, asylum, and nationality cases at the Court of Session, UK Supreme Court, and European Court of Human Rights.

Contributed to

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Key immigration law issues for the manufacturing sector

Practice Notes

The UK immigration needs of UK-based manufacturers necessarily differ to overseas-based manufacturers. Overseas manufacturers typically intersect with UK immigration law when they supply their goods to a UK company. Such deals are often accompanied by after-sales service agreements for the installation of the goods, either by employees of the manufacturer themselves or by specialist subcontractors. This type of scenario can often be catered for through a standard visit visa, however, visit visas are only a solution for short-term projects lasting less than six months. For longer-term projects requiring foreign personnel to stay in the UK for more than six months at a time, companies generally need to consider alternative visa options.The UK manufacturing sector on the other hand will often need to engage with UK immigration law from the perspective of wanting to sponsor overseas workers, either to fill permanent vacancies or for specified project work.At first glance, the UK offers a multitude of different and useful-sounding temporary work visas. But in truth, most options are hamstrung

Immigration