About Veristat

Veristat specialises in providing advice and support to companies and education providers on managing and meeting their responsibilities under the Immigration Rules. We work in close partnership with our clients and use our experience of the UK Border Agency and relevant legislation to enable companies and education providers to get on with their core business with the confidence that they are meeting immigration requirements. We take pride in our expertise, integrity and professionalism and are registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC).

Don Ingham

Veristat was founded by Don Ingham, a former Director in the Home Office. Don has over 30 years’ experience of immigration control at operational, policy and strategic levels, both in the UK and abroad.

Prior to founding Veristat, Don held a number of board-level positions in the Home Office and other government departments. Roles included Director of Enforcement and Director of Managed Migration, during which time he was involved in developing the Points Based System.

Don has worked with a number of multi-nationals advising on border management issues and is also a Director of Eurasylum, through which he provides research, evaluation and consultancy services on migration for government agencies, the European Commission and NGOs including the International Organization for Migration.

Maria Cavilla (Director)

Maria has had over 17yrs experience in the field of Immigration and Asylum within the UK Border Agency where she worked as Deputy Director in the Case Resolution Directorate leading on Policy, Design and Performance.

She has also worked as Deputy Director Stakeholder Management in the e-Borders programme and as Assistant Director London Enforcement responsible for dealing with illegal migration and asylum across London and the South East of England.

She formally left the UKBA in July 2011 and has up to date, in depth knowledge of immigration and asylum policy and front line operational experience in all aspects of immigration control.

Colin Manchip CBE (Associate)

Colin has a degree in Law. He spent some 34 years in the Immigration and Passport Departments of the Home Office, and between 1991 and 1996 served as one of two directors of the UK Immigration Service.

Since then he has provided consultancy on immigration and asylum affairs to international organisations, the European Commission and national government authorities.

Mike Stanley (Associate)

Mike is a former senior official with the UK Border Agency. He spent over 37 years in government service, working up to the position of Director of Border Control Regions.

Mike has extensive experience in the field of operational immigration enforcement, including the management of enforcement for London. He has worked in Qatar and Turkey, managing visa policy and practice, and has in-depth knowledge of immigration policy and implementation.

Mike is registered with the OISC to provide immigration advice.

Pat Laverty (Consultant)

Pat spent over 24 years in Government service, working in the Identity and Passport Service and UKBA. As a Senior Presenting Officer he has extensive experience of immigration appeals and has represented UKBA before the President and Vice President of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber), numerous Senior Immigration Judges and judges of the First Tier Tribunal.

He has a Diploma in Business Administration from Paisley University and is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Pat is registered with the OISC to provide immigration advice.

Martin Davies (Consultant)

Following graduation from Keele University where he read Law & Criminology, Martin worked in the UKBA at Heathrow Airport as an immigration officer.

He then joined a document analysis team specialising in detecting forged documents and in 2003 was one of two forgery experts selected to undertake a tour of Serbia and Montenegro to conduct training.

He has also worked as a Visa Officer in Islamabad, Sofia and Karachi and in 2007 created Heathrow's first specialist unit combating misuse of NHS funds. Martin is registered with the OISC to provide immigration advice.

Ken Joss (consultant)

Ken spent 27 years working in the Home Office – 20 years of that time working in the field of Immigration, Asylum and Passports.

He was until recently a Deputy Director in the Immigration Group in the UK Border Agency working on improving strategic performance and was previously the Programme and Resources Manager for the Case Resolution Directorate.

Ken played a key role in establishing the National Asylum Support Service where he led on Policy and Process Design before becoming operations manager. Ken also has extensive operational experience of immigration and passport casework.

Claudia Paraschivescu

Claudia joined the company with an MSc in Globalisation and International Policy Analysis from the University of Bath, where she specialised in migration policy. Her research interests include human trafficking and EU migration policy.

Within the team, Claudia operates both as a researcher and immigration adviser and is registered with the OISC to provide immigration advice.

Take the stress out of immigration