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Nilmini Roelens LLM, DEJF

Founder and Principal Solicitor

Nilmini Roelens LLM, DEJF
Nilmini Roelens LLM, DEJF
Founder and Principal Solicitor
Head of Business Immigration

Roelens Solicitors is managed by Nilmini Roelens. Nilmini was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales in 1991. She graduated from Leicester University in 1987 with her first degree in LLB Law with French. Being a fluent French speaker she obtained a Diplome d'Etudes Juridiques Francaises from Strasbourg University (France). She first developed her passion for the practice of Immigration Law as a Trainee Solicitor in London in 1990 and thus has three decades of experience in the field.


She became an individual member of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association in 1991. She focused on Immigration Law during her Masters Degree in European Law at Kings College, London. Since 1997 she managed her own successful specialist Immigration Law firm Roelens Solicitors employing a sizeable team of immigration lawyers during which time she secured Law Society Accreditation as a Supervisor in Immigration Law. She was also a member of the highly regarded Law Society's Immigration Law Panel and secured UK Border Agency approval for the firm's services in Sponsorship Licensing whilst the schemes were in operation and has conducted a number of seminars on the Points Based System notably on Skilled Workers, Student Sponsors, the new Global Business Mobility categories and business immigration options. Please see also our Media page.

She has written many articles on the Points Based System, including the Innovator category, Tier 2, Global Business Mobility and other Immigration Law issues in specialist fora. She has a particular interest in Business Immigration including Global Talent, Start-ups and Innovators, Skilled Worker and Student Sponsors. She also contributes to international editorials at Chambers of Commerce and has been quoted in French media outlets including Le Figaro and French Morning London. She has successfully challenged UKVI suspension and revocation action of sponsor licences of Businesses as well as Educational Institutions through representations and complex Judicial Review.

In addition to her deep interest in Business Immigration she is strongly committed to Human Rights and has been involved in a number of significant legal challenges in protection cases.

Nilmini's commitment to refugee and human rights issues, particularly as they affect religious minorities and issues relating to gender-based persecution has led to her becoming the key author of two reports on country conditions, following fact-finding missions to Pakistan in 2014/5 and to Thailand and Malaysia in 2019.

She was a contributor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief. She has also contributed to Home Office policy on the position of religious minorities in Pakistan and ethnic minorities in Somalia. She represented the appellants in the country guidance cases of MN and others (Ahmadis – country conditions – risk) Pakistan CG [2012] UKUT 00389 (IAC) and of MST and Others (national service – risk categories) Eritrea CG [2016] UKUT 00443 (IAC).

Nilmini provides training for other immigration lawyers via the highly regarded HJT Training and has acted as a Consultant Solicitor to other specialist Immigration law firms.


She recently led a fundraising campaign called walk4lanka to support the vulnerable affected by the financial crisis in Sri Lanka on behalf of APSL UK.


Nilmini speaks fluent French and Sinhala. She also claims to have a beginners' intermediate knowledge of Mandarin Chinese as well as a smattering of Spanish and German.

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