Ilda de Sousa

Ilda is a partner in the immigration team at Kingsley Napley. She is a South African qualified attorney and a British qualified solicitor who joined the firm in January 2010.

Ilda has more than ten years of UK corporate immigration law experience, managing large company clients as well as handling complex matters for individuals, British nationality applications, appeals, judicial reviews and applications under European Law including Brexit related advice.

Ilda also has extensive knowledge and experience in all aspects of the Points Based System, including assisting employers with their Tiers 2 or 5 sponsor registrations and advising on immigration compliance issues. Equally, she has extensive experience in advising investors, entrepreneurs and high-net worth individuals.

Prior to joining Kingsley Napley LLP, Ilda was the UK Country Manager for Emigra Europe Limited, a specialist global immigration consultancy firm, with service centres on three continents, providing global immigration services for over 100 different countries. Ilda was responsible for the overall management of the UK office, including advising large multinational clients in respect of their UK Immigration related matters.

She also worked as an Associate at ASG Immigration where she advised on all aspects of business and personal immigration, with an emphasis on multinational employees, skilled migrants and applications under European law.

Ilda has spoken on matters of immigration law for several distinguished organisations throughout her career. She has also written several articles on a variety of subjects relating to UK Immigration law. 

She is recommended in the International Who's Who of Business Immigration Lawyers, Chambers and Partners, and is ranked as a Leading Individual in Legal 500 UK 2020. She has also been recognised in the Citywealth Leaders List 2020 and is listed  in Who's Who Legal as a Thought Leader in Corporate Immigration, 2019.

Recent work

Includes advising:

• A large corporate on the steps they need to take after they discovered one of their subsidiary office’s failed to report a TUPE transfer to the Home Office within the required time frame and then let their sponsor licence lapse resulting in the curtailment of a Tier 2 sponsored migrant’s leave.
• A very senior executive who had encountered many difficulties entering the UK because Immigration Officers at port refused to recognise him as a returning resident to the UK after having acquired indefinite leave to remain more than 30 years ago.
• A prominent organisation whose sponsor licence had been suspended as a result of a recent audit from the Home Office.
• A non- EEA national spouse following the refusal of her application for permanent residence which resulted in her passport being held by the Home Office Enforcement Unit.
• A large multinational corporation who received a notification from the Border Force wanting to impose a civil penalty due to suspected illegal employment.
• Advising multinational corporations in respect of their EEA nationals’ right to reside in the UK post-Brexit and, alongside our external partners, British nationals working elsewhere in Europe.

Professional societies and memberships

• Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA)
• International Bar Association (IBA)

press articles and quotes

Ilda frequently writes for and is quoted in the press. These include:

• What the UK's top entrepreneurs want from the visa system after Brexit, Forbes, 20 September 2019
• Brexit: business anxiety over freedom of movement U-turn, Relocate Global, 20 August 2019
• Lawyers signal Tier 2 visa salary requirement may be easing, People Management, 27 July 2018
• Letter to editor: Polo team staff shortages are just the beginning, Financial Times, 15 May 2018
• Support EU employees in the run-up to Brexit, People Management, 30 March 2017
• Post-Brexit visas for financial staff face red tape snarls, Law 360, 21 October 2016
• Migration advisers urge ministers to curb flow of skilled workers, Financial Times, 19 January 2016
• Companies react to MAC’s ‘Statement of Intent’, Recruitment International, 20 January 2016

Further information

Ilda has a Bachelor’s degree in Jurisprudence along with an LLB degree from the University of the North West in South Africa. She was initially admitted to practice as a South African attorney in 1999 and later qualified as a solicitor before being made partner in 2013. Ilda speaks Portuguese and Afrikaans.