Presenting Officer

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) determine who can visit, study, work and stay in the UK, protecting national security and supporting lawful migration. We support the economy and society by licencing organisations and deciding visa applications. We operate the United Kingdom's asylum system, providing protection to vulnerable people while working with partners to help refugees access essential services.

This is an opportunity to operate in a key priority area within the Home Office, contributing to work building and maintaining a safe, fair and prosperous UK.

AFTT (Appeals, First Tier Tribunals), part of Asylum and Human Rights Operations (AHRO) plays a vital role in ensuring fairness and integrity in the UK’s immigration system. We manage and review cases where appeals or legal challenges arise, defend decisions where appropriate, and provide remedies for applications that do not meet Immigration Rules.

Operating across 8 Presenting Officer’s Units throughout the UK, our team represents the Secretary of State in Immigration Tribunal hearings, and in the review of initial decisions, ensuring these are robust, lawful, and fair.

The Presenting Officer role offers a unique opportunity to develop advocacy and decision-making skills in a fast-paced legal environment and the opportunity to develop expertise in immigration law and advocacy.

We are advertising for 10 posts and are looking to build a large reserve list to accommodate for future roles.

Presenting Officers represent the Secretary of State at the First-tier Immigration Tribunal, preparing and presenting a challenging caseload independently to ensure sustainable decisions are robustly defended. This is an extremely demanding position, requiring the ability to remain positive and focused in a challenging, dynamic and fast-changing environment.

The ability to operate effectively when faced with frequent and often robust challenge from legal representatives and Immigration Judges is crucial, as is a high degree of personal resilience to quickly move forward when challenged. Extended periods of concentration and focus are required when preparing and presenting complex cases and undertaking target-driven review work.

To understand the considerable challenges of the role, it is recommended that successful candidates observe a hearing at the Immigration Tribunal.

Key Responsibilities

• Present cases before the Immigration Tribunal on approximately 60% of working days, ensuring professionalism and appropriate conduct in a public setting.
• Prepare and present cases effectively, including reviewing decisions and legal representations to assess their sustainability and identify key evidence for strong arguments.
• Develop and maintain a sound understanding of immigration law, policy, and processes.
• Work flexibly to accommodate court listing changes and operational needs, including preparing and presenting cases at short notice.
• Deliver structured submissions and cross-examination in an adversarial environment to uphold decisions appropriately.
• Complete post-hearing work accurately and within required timeframes.
• Undertake immigration review work in line with relevant rules, guidance, and standards when court attendance is not possible or as required by business needs.
• Build and maintain positive relationships with key stakeholders, including Immigration Judges, HM Courts and Tribunal Service staff, legal representatives, and colleagues across the Home Office.

Working Pattern

This role is available on a full-time basis. This role is also suitable for part-time working hours, with a minimum requirement to work 4 days / 30 hours per week due to business requirements.

Post holders will be required to present at the Immigration Tribunal up to 60% of their contracted working days.

Staff must also attend the office for training, mentoring, and typically once every fortnight for team engagement.

Training

Successful candidates will complete a comprehensive foundation and mentoring programme with progress formally assessed to ensure competence. Attendance in person on training is mandatory, with limited flexibility on timings.

Travel

In some locations, hearing centres are located away from the home unit, and occasional travel to other centres may be required.

Information Session

To learn more about this role and how to apply, register for one of our free, optional live events. Click the date and time that suits you below.

• Wednesday 30th September 2026 1.30pm-2.30pm - Link
• Wednesday 7th October 2026 10am-11am - Link

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Ability and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We will endeavour to conduct the selection process in line with the dates indicated below, but cannot guarantee that these will not, where necessary, be revised.

As part of the application process, you will first be asked to confirm your eligibility by providing some basic personal information.

After submission of this first stage, you will be invited to complete the following Civil Service Verbal test.

• Online Test – by 26th October 2026

If you successfully pass the Civil Service Verbal test, you will be invited to complete the full application form. Please complete the online test as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended). If you fail to complete the online test or full application before the deadline, your application will be withdrawn.

Guidance for the Civil Service test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The online tests are accessed via the Civil Service Jobs website.

You cannot complete the tests on a mobile phone or tablet.

You will be directed to the Talogy - True Talent – Scheduled Maintenance Window Webpage for online tests during an outage.

Our online test supplier will be performing scheduled maintenance on the following dates:

27th September 4 p.m. to Midnight

11th October 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

25th October Midday to 1 p.m.

You will be unable to access tests during this period.

If you are in the middle of a test when the maintenance begins, your progress will be paused. You will be able to resume your test from where you left off via your application centre once the downtime has ended. Please note that you will not be able to launch any new tests while the system is offline.

Following successful completion of your test, you will then be asked to complete the full application form.

2. Application – by 26th October 2026

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• Personal Statement (maximum 1000 words).

The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the essential criteria, detailed in the job description.

For guidance and information on how to construct your application (Personal Statement), you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers website.

3. Sift – week commencing 2nd November 2026

The sift will be held on the Personal Statement.

4. Interview - week commencing 14th December 2026

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview. At interview candidates will be required to prepare and deliver a 10-minute presentation and respond to follow-up questions from the interview panel. The details of the presentation will be provided at the start of the interview. Slides will not be accepted.

The presentation will be assessed against 'Behaviours' on the 'Success Profiles' and will be specifically assessed against the Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace and Making Effective Decisions.

Candidates will also be asked Experience based questions by the panel as part of the interview. The Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

The interview will take place on Microsoft Teams.

For guidance and information on what to expect and how to prepare for an interview, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers.

Problems during the application process

If you experience problems accessing this advert, or you think you’ve made a mistake on an initial application, please contact hocandidates.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, including the vacancy reference, at least two working days before the vacancy closes. Further information can be found on our website.

Do not create or attempt to submit another application, online test or use a different Civil Service Jobs account to proceed as this would be in violation of the candidate declaration.

Location Preference

You can select up to two locations in order of preference. Please ensure that these are locations you are prepared to travel to. If you are offered a role at one of your preferred location(s) and you decline, your application will be withdrawn.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made. There is no guarantee that being held on a reserve list will lead to a job offer. Further information can be found on our website.

Reserve lists will be held for each location. Candidates will be appointed in merit order by location.

Breaking Tied Scores

The behaviours and experience have been ranked in order of importance to enable us to differentiate between candidates with tied interview scores.

Standards

All Civil Servants are expected to comply with the Civil Service Code, and its core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

Additional Security Checks

As well as successfully obtaining UK Security Vetting clearance, candidates will be subject to a range of additional checks. The range of checks carried out will depend on whether you are a current Home Office employee, existing civil servant or an external new entrant as well as the role requirements. Further details are included in the Notes to Candidates.

In addition to our standard pre-employment checks, further additional checks will be conducted by the business area on all successful candidates. The additional checks will be carried out before a start date is agreed. Therefore, all offers of employment will remain provisional until these additional checks have been successfully completed. Where the additional checks are not completed successfully, the offer of employment will be withdrawn. As part of these additional checks, enquiries/online checks will be made with the below noted organisations to identify whether they hold information and will be based on publicly available information:

• Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) – formerly Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner (OISC)
• Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
• The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx)
• The Bar Standards Board (BSB)
• Law Society of Scotland
• Faculty of Advocates
• Law Society of Northern Ireland
• The General Council of the Bar of Northern Ireland

If you are invited to an interview, you will be required to bring documentation for the purposes of establishing your identity.

To process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service / Disclosure Scotland on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct.

If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.