The grant letter goes in the file, and the date goes with it
A client gets their visa. Everyone is pleased, the file is closed, the grant letter is saved in the matter folder, and that is the last anyone thinks about it. Two and a half years later the same client rings in a panic because their leave runs out in five weeks, or worse, they never ring at all and go to a firm that happened to advertise to them at the right moment.
Most firms know they should be tracking this. In practice, the expiry date is written in the grant letter, maybe typed into a field in the case management system, maybe in a spreadsheet someone started in 2021 and stopped updating when they left. Nobody owns the list, so nobody looks at it.
Why a spreadsheet of dates never quite works
The dates are not the hard part. The hard part is that each client's next step is different. A worker on a sponsored route has a different path from a spouse on a family route, and dependants usually have their own dates that may not line up with the main applicant's. A single column of expiry dates tells you when something ends, not when the conversation should start.
There is also a data problem. Dates were entered in different formats, sometimes in the notes field, sometimes only in the PDF of the decision. Closed files are rarely reviewed, so errors sit there undetected. And when a caseworker leaves, the knowledge of which of their past clients are coming up goes with them.
What the missing reminders cost the firm
| What happens | Effect on the firm |
|---|---|
| Client comes back too late | An urgent, stressful file with little room for preparation |
| Client never comes back | Repeat work lost to whoever reached them first |
| Dependants missed | Family members' dates drift apart and one gets overlooked |
| Caseworker leaves | Their past clients become invisible to the firm |
| No forward view | Partners cannot see what work is coming in the next year |
Repeat clients are often the easiest work a firm gets. They already trust you, you already hold much of their history, and a well-timed message is often all it takes for them to instruct you again.
How we build an expiry register that runs itself
- We read your case management system through its API or a regular export and pull out the grant date, expiry date, route and every person on the application, including dependants.
- For older files where the date only exists in a decision letter PDF, we use document extraction to read the dates out and put each one in a check queue for a person to confirm before it is trusted.
- Each client gets a record with their current expiry and a reminder window that your advisers set per route. We do not decide those windows. Your firm does.
- Reminders go out by email or SMS through a provider such as Twilio, in plain language, inviting the client to book a review. The wording is yours and can be approved before anything is sent.
- A dashboard shows upcoming expiries by month, by route and by original caseworker, so partners can see the pipeline and allocate the work.
- Replies and bookings are written back to the client record, so the next reminder does not go to someone who has already instructed you.
Where the case system has no usable export, we tell you plainly and look at what the alternative would be, which may just be a one-off extraction and a much better spreadsheet.
A calmer calendar for the next twelve months
Instead of reacting to panicked calls, the team can see which clients are coming up and start conversations early. Dependants appear next to the main applicant, so nobody is forgotten. When an adviser leaves, their past clients stay visible on the same screen as everyone else's.
Partners get something they rarely have in this line of work: a rough picture of next year's workload before it arrives.
It also changes how the firm talks about itself. A message that arrives at the right time, from the adviser who handled the last application, is a far better reminder of your service than any advert the client happens to see.
Signs this is your firm
- Expiry dates are only in grant letters or free-text notes
- Former clients come back with only weeks left on their leave
- You have no list of clients whose status ends next year
- Dependants' dates are not tracked separately
- A past caseworker's clients have effectively been forgotten