May Cheung
Senior Associate
May Cheung is a senior associate who specialises in UK business immigration law. She is based in the London office and advises clients on UK inbound immigration and compliance matters.
May’s day-to-day role involves working with large international corporations, as well as smaller startups, supporting them in their transition when they establish themselves in the UK. As well as assisting companies with their sponsor licence and compliance matters under the Skilled Worker, ICT and Government Authorised Exchange routes, bringing skilled workers to the UK, May carries out regular audits for clients and provides training on compliance and prevention of illegal working. She also has a depth of experience in representing clients against Home Office licence suspension decisions and civil penalty claims.
More recently, May has advised businesses on forward planning for Brexit, delivering communications to assist staff with the change in immigration law, and assisted companies to obtain their own licence, link up or separate existing licences to plan for retaining and recruiting skilled workers. She assisted clients that have had to go through complex restructures as a result of Brexit to efficiently transfer staff while staying compliant with immigration obligations.
May has a particular focus on changes to the immigration law. She has previously contributed to the Migration Advisory Committee’s consultations on the new Points Based System, shortage in skills and reform of Intra Company Transfer route to help represent clients’ views to the Home Office and ensure the law remains practical and relevant to businesses.
May is listed as a Rising Star in The Legal 500 in both 2019 and 2020 for her work in the field.
- Advising a group with a restructure and transfer of workers to two other entities under a tight timeline. The workers included those sponsored by the company under their licence, so worked with the employment team to assist some of the workers to transfer to a new entity through TUPE, and others to transfer through Home Office authorisation to the other entity where TUPE would not apply. Managed the process for the client through preparation, advice and relevant reports to the Home Office, resulting in a smooth transition.
- Carried out a roadshow of talks and training for a client based all around the UK on Brexit planning and arranged workshops for its employees to provide on-hand assistance.
- Attended a service sector client site on short notice to carry out a full audit within a day, interviewing all existing sponsored workers to prepare for a Home Office audit and ensuring the business was compliant with Home Office requirements.
- Advises on private family visas, including family members of British nationals, as well as Europeans with EU settlement scheme status. Have assisted many Europeans with their path to citizenship since 2016, whether through EU regulations or current EUSS.
- Advising and assisting clients with the transfer of workers to complete projects in the UK post-Brexit that falls outside those permitted for visitors in timely manner.
Education
- Swansea University, L.P.C., 2007
- University of Aberystwyth, LL.B. (Hons.), 2006
Admissions
- England and Wales, 2009
Languages
- English
- Cantonese