Consultancy's mission to help foreign students stay in the UK

Bettina Yarde founded her Sheffield-based business Morgan Dias Immigration Consultants in 2007, to help workers and students obtain visas to come to the UK.

She has now secured a working relationship with Sheffield-based Dearson Winyard, which also provides advice on work visas and immigration issues.

Ms Yarde specialises in representing people who are appealing against a decision to deny them a visa to stay in the UK.

She currently has 50 cases, and, as a result of the links with Dearson Winyard, is working with clients as far afield as London and Kent.

Yesterday, Ms Yarde warned that changes in immigration rules could reduce the number of foreign students who choose to stay in the UK. She fears that red tape and extra costs could deter students from coming to Britain, which will harm our economy in the long term.

"The fees involved, and the possibility of not being able to remain in the UK after they finish their course of study, could lead to foreign students not seeing the UK as a viable place to study,'' she said.

Ms Yarde also fears that extra regulations mean that key industries, such as catering, are finding it harder to find workers from outside the EU.

This could have a damaging impact on businesses such as Indian takeaways and restaurants, she argued. Many Indian restaurants need skilled staff from outside the EU.

Her company's turnover is around 50,000 a year, and Ms Yarde has recently hired a member of staff.

She added: "My business by 2012 should have grown to 120,000 and I intend to see a steady increase year on year from this.

"However, it is hard to predict the situation with so many changes affecting immigration."

Born in Sheffield to parents who had recently arrived from the West Indies, Ms Yarde completed a degree in European legal studies at the University of Huddersfield.

She spent a year at Turku University in Finland from 1998 to 1999, which helped her gain an insight into international law.

After working for the immigration advisory service from 2002 until 2006, she joined Howells Solicitors as an immigration paralegal before deciding to branch out on her own with Morgan Dias in 2007.

In 2008 she was a finalist in the Entrepreneurial Woman of the Future category in the Women of the Future national awards which were held in the London Marriott Hotel.