Samantha J Peiris

Samantha J Peiris advises the Chambers on immigration, and he comes to it from inside the system. He spent five years as an Immigration Officer at the Department of Immigration and Emigration, assessing and deciding applications, and founded the Immigration Officers Association, which represents the Department's officers, serving as its first President.

Immigration work turns on how a file is read as much as on the text of the Immigrants and Emigrants Act: which category a set of facts belongs in, what an officer expects to see before being satisfied of something, and which objection is fatal rather than procedural. He advises on visa categories, residence and the conduct of an application from that footing.

He read for the Attorney-at-Law examination at Sri Lanka Law College between 2003 and 2007, while serving at the Department, and remained there for two years after qualifying. Eight years at the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation came before that, from 1996 to 2004, as a Purchasing Officer working on tendering, supplier evaluation and contract administration.

He is an Attorney-at-Law and a Notary Public, and a Company Director of R & J Corporate Services (Pvt) Ltd. That work runs from incorporation through resolutions, minutes and statutory filings, alongside notarial practice, attesting deeds and other instruments, and advice on property and real estate transactions.

He advises the Football Federation of Sri Lanka, the Alumni Association of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and the Silver Screen Society. The Football Federation connection began on the governance side, with a seat on the Executive Committee from 2014 to 2021 and the chairmanship of its Media Committee, before the legal advisory role.

He holds a BSc (Hons) in Management (Public) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, read between 1991 and 1994, and took a Diploma in Psychology and the Higher Certificate in Guidance and Counselling at the Institute of Psychological Studies in 1996, before turning to law. The counselling training bears on the work: immigration and family matters are usually brought to a lawyer by someone under strain, and what a client is able to say in a first meeting shapes the file. He was awarded Best Stage Manager at the State Drama Festival in 1993 for Sevanali saha Minissu.