Immigration Lawyer Australia: What They Do and When You Need One

What is an immigration lawyer in Australia?

An immigration lawyer in Australia is an Australian legal practitioner who holds a current practising certificate and, as part of their legal practice, advises on visas, lodges applications and represents clients in review and court. That definition matters, because the Migration Act 1958 restricts who may help with a visa matter at all. Under section 280 of the Act, a person who is not a registered migration agent must not give immigration assistance, and the Act then carves out a small number of exceptions. The most important of those exceptions is an Australian legal practitioner acting in connection with their legal practice. An immigration lawyer works inside that exception.

The Department of Home Affairs describes immigration assistance as using knowledge or experience of migration procedure to prepare or help prepare a visa application or another document, to advise about a visa application or visa matter, or to represent a person in court proceedings about a visa matter. Every part of an immigration lawyer's work falls inside that description. Advice on which visa fits a person's circumstances is immigration assistance. Drafting a statement for a protection claim is immigration assistance. Preparing a submission to the Administrative Review Tribunal is immigration assistance.

Since 22 March 2021, lawyers who hold an unrestricted practising certificate are no longer registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority and are no longer eligible to register. That change was made by the Migration Amendment (Regulation of Migration Agents) Act 2020. Before it, many lawyers were regulated twice, once by their state or territory legal profession regulator and once as a registered migration agent. After it, an immigration lawyer is regulated as a lawyer. The state or territory legal services board or commissioner supervises their conduct, their trust obligations and their duties to the client and to the court.

The label "immigration lawyer" is not a separate qualification. There is no additional licence for migration law in Australia. Any Australian legal practitioner may give immigration assistance. In practice, migration law is a specialised field with its own Act, its own Regulations, its own tribunal jurisdiction and its own body of case law, so the lawyers who do this work well tend to do a great deal of it and little else. When a person searches for an immigration lawyer, the useful question is not whether the lawyer is permitted to act, because any practising lawyer is, but whether migration law is what the lawyer actually does.

Two other terms appear alongside "immigration lawyer" and mean the same thing. "Migration lawyer" is the more common term inside the Australian profession, because the legislation is the Migration Act and the Department historically called itself the Department of Immigration. "Immigration solicitor" is used less often in Australia and more often in the United Kingdom. All three describe an Australian legal practitioner whose practice is migration law.

What does an immigration lawyer do?

An immigration lawyer advises on visa eligibility, prepares and lodges visa applications, responds to the Department on the client's behalf, and represents the client if a decision is refused, cancelled or reviewed. The work divides into four stages, and a single matter can pass through all four.

The first stage is advice. The lawyer takes the client's full history, including every previous visa, every refusal, every period without a visa and every issue that might raise a character or integrity question. The lawyer then identifies which visa, if any, the person can apply for, which criteria will be difficult to meet, and which legislative bars might stand in the way. This is where a lawyer earns the fee. The Migration Regulations 1994 contain bars that can make an application invalid before it is even assessed. Section 48 of the Migration Act prevents a person whose visa has been refused or cancelled onshore from applying for most other visas while still in Australia. Schedule 3 of the Regulations imposes additional criteria on a person who applies for an onshore partner visa without holding a substantive visa. Condition 8503, the no further stay condition, blocks most onshore applications entirely unless it is waived. A person who lodges without understanding these rules can lose the application charge, lose time, and in some cases lose the right to stay in Australia while a decision is made.

The second stage is preparation and lodgement. An immigration lawyer does not simply fill in the form. The lawyer decides which criteria need evidence, what evidence will satisfy a delegate, how the client's own account should be set out, and how to deal in advance with anything the Department is likely to question. For an onshore Subclass 820 partner visa this means evidence of a genuine and continuing relationship across the four aspects the Regulations require. For a Subclass 866 protection visa it means a detailed written statement of the client's own claims, prepared from the client's own account, reviewed and corrected by the client, and organised so that it addresses the legal test in section 36 of the Act. The lawyer presents the client's own evidence in the form the law requires. The client decides which claims are advanced.

The third stage is dealing with the Department after lodgement. Delegates frequently write to applicants asking for more information or inviting comment on adverse information. These letters carry deadlines, and a poor response can decide the case. An immigration lawyer who is appointed on Form 956 receives that correspondence, advises the client on what it means, and prepares the response. Form 956 is the Department's form titled Appointment of a registered migration agent, legal practitioner or exempt person. It tells the Department who acts for the applicant and who is to receive documents.

The fourth stage is review. If a visa is refused or cancelled, most decisions can be reviewed on the merits by the Administrative Review Tribunal, which replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 14 October 2024. The time limits for applying to the Tribunal are short and strictly applied, and the Tribunal has no power to extend most of them. The lawyer prepares the review application, gathers further evidence, prepares written submissions on the law, and appears at the hearing. If the Tribunal affirms the refusal, the remaining avenue is judicial review in the courts for legal error, which is work only a lawyer can do in the client's name.

Across all four stages, the lawyer also carries professional duties that shape how the work is done. A lawyer owes the client a duty of confidentiality and a duty to act in the client's interests. A lawyer also owes duties to the court and to the administration of justice, which means a lawyer cannot present a claim the lawyer knows to be false and cannot help a client mislead the Department. Those duties protect the client as much as anyone. A visa obtained with false information is exposed to cancellation for years afterwards, and Public Interest Criterion 4020 allows the Department to refuse a later application where a bogus document or false information was given in an earlier one.

Immigration lawyer or registered migration agent: what is the difference?

An immigration lawyer is regulated as a lawyer under state and territory legal profession law, while a registered migration agent is registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority and bound by the Code of Conduct for registered migration agents made under the Migration Act. Both are lawfully permitted to give immigration assistance under section 280 of the Migration Act, and both are permitted to charge for it under section 281. The difference lies in who regulates them, what they may do, and what protections attach to the relationship.

A registered migration agent must meet the registration requirements set by the Authority, including prescribed qualifications in Australian migration law and practice, and must comply with the Code of Conduct. The Authority maintains a public register, and an applicant can check whether an agent is currently registered by searching that register. Many registered migration agents have long experience and handle a high volume of applications. For a straightforward application where the criteria are clearly met and there is no history that complicates matters, a registered migration agent is a legitimate and common choice.

An immigration lawyer must hold a current practising certificate issued by the legal profession regulator in their state or territory. Since 22 March 2021, a lawyer with an unrestricted practising certificate cannot also be a registered migration agent. The lawyer is instead supervised by the legal services board or commissioner, is bound by the professional conduct rules that apply to all solicitors and barristers, and is subject to the costs disclosure and costs agreement requirements of legal profession legislation. An applicant can check whether a lawyer holds a current practising certificate through the register kept by the law society or legal services board in the relevant state or territory.

Three practical differences follow from this. First, communications between a lawyer and a client made for the dominant purpose of legal advice are protected by legal professional privilege. That privilege belongs to the client. It means the client's discussions with the lawyer, and the lawyer's advice, generally cannot be compelled from the lawyer by the Department or by a court. Communications with a registered migration agent who is not a lawyer do not attract legal professional privilege, although the agent still owes a duty of confidentiality under the Code of Conduct.

Second, only a lawyer can represent a person in court. If a Tribunal decision is to be challenged for legal error in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia or the Federal Court of Australia, the applicant needs a lawyer to appear and to draft the grounds. A registered migration agent cannot do that work.

Third, an immigration lawyer is trained in the whole of the law, not only migration law. Visa matters regularly overlap with other areas. A character issue under section 501 raises questions of criminal law and sentencing. A family violence claim in a partner visa raises questions of family law and evidence. A dispute with a former representative raises questions of professional negligence. A lawyer can see the whole problem and advise on all of it, or refer the client to the right specialist where needed.

None of this means a registered migration agent is the wrong choice. It means the two roles are different, and the right choice depends on the matter. Where the visa criteria are clearly met and the history is clean, both can do the work. Where there is a refusal, a cancellation, a legislative bar, a protection claim, a character concern, an inconsistency in the client's record, or any prospect that the matter may end in a tribunal or a court, the protections and the reach that come with a lawyer become important.

When do you need an immigration lawyer?

A person needs an immigration lawyer when the outcome of the visa matter turns on a question of law, on a legislative bar, on a refusal or cancellation, or on evidence that the Department is likely to test. Not every visa application needs a lawyer. A person with a clear entitlement, a clean history and time in hand can often apply alone or with a registered migration agent. The situations below are the ones where the involvement of a lawyer changes what can be done.

A visa has been refused. A refusal starts a short, strictly applied clock for applying to the Administrative Review Tribunal. Once that period passes, the right to merits review is lost and cannot be revived by the Tribunal. A refusal also triggers section 48, which limits the visas that can be applied for onshore while the person remains in Australia. A lawyer identifies immediately whether review is available, whether it is worth pursuing, what the refusal decision actually turned on, and what evidence the Tribunal will need to see. My Migration Lawyers acts in visa refusal reviews before the Administrative Review Tribunal and in the preparation that precedes them.

A visa has been cancelled or a notice of intention to consider cancellation has arrived. Cancellation carries its own deadlines for responding, its own grounds under sections 109, 116 and 501, and consequences that can include a bar on future applications. The response to a cancellation notice is a legal document and should be prepared as one.

The person does not currently hold a substantive visa. A person on a bridging visa, or with no visa at all, who wants to apply for an onshore partner visa must satisfy Schedule 3 of the Migration Regulations unless the Department is satisfied there are compelling reasons not to apply those criteria. Arguing a Schedule 3 waiver is legal work. It depends on the case law, on what the Department's policy treats as compelling, and on evidence assembled to meet that standard.

The person holds a visa with a no further stay condition. Condition 8503, and its counterparts 8534 and 8535, prevent most onshore applications unless the condition is waived. The waiver request has its own criteria. Lodging an application without addressing the condition wastes the application charge and can leave the applicant without a bridging visa.

The matter is a protection claim. A protection visa application under section 36 of the Migration Act is decided on the applicant's own account of what has happened and what they fear, tested against country information and against the legal definitions in sections 5H and 5J for refugee status and section 36(2)(aa) for complementary protection. The statement of claims is the most important document in the case, and it must be complete, consistent and legally organised from the outset, because inconsistencies between the statement, the interview and the review hearing are the most common reason protection claims fail. My Migration Lawyers prepares protection visa claims for people already in Australia, including complementary protection, religious persecution and sexuality-based claims.

The relationship in a partner visa application is under strain or has ended. The family violence provisions in Division 1.5 of the Regulations allow a partner visa to be granted in some circumstances even though the relationship has ended, but the evidence requirements are specific and the timing matters. A person in this position needs advice quickly and privately.

There is something in the history that the Department may treat as adverse. Previous refusals in any country, previous visa cancellations, periods of unlawful stay, criminal charges or convictions, incorrect information given in an earlier application, or a previous application prepared by someone else that contained errors. Each of these must be disclosed and each must be dealt with. A lawyer works out how.

A previous representative has made a mistake. Where an earlier agent or firm has lodged the wrong application, missed a deadline, or given information the client did not authorise, the client needs advice on what can be repaired and how to protect their position.

The common thread is risk. Where the downside of a wrong step is losing the right to remain in Australia, losing a review right, or being barred from future applications, the cost of legal advice is small against what is at stake.

How do immigration lawyer fees work in Australia?

Immigration lawyer fees in Australia are set by the firm, disclosed in writing before work begins, and recorded in a costs agreement that the client signs. There is no scale or fixed tariff for migration work. What a person pays depends on the type of matter, its complexity, and the firm's fee model. Two things are consistent across the profession.

First, legal profession legislation in every state and territory requires a lawyer to give the client written costs disclosure before or as soon as practicable after taking instructions. The disclosure sets out how the fees are calculated, what the estimated total is, what is included and what is excluded, and how the client can dispute a bill. A lawyer who does not give costs disclosure may be unable to enforce the costs agreement. A person who is quoted a fee verbally and never receives a written costs agreement should ask for one before paying anything.

Second, government charges are separate from legal fees and are set by the Department of Home Affairs. The visa application charge is paid to the Department when the application is lodged. Tribunal application fees are paid to the Administrative Review Tribunal. Health examinations, police clearances, translations and document certification are paid to the providers of those services. None of these is a legal fee, and a lawyer's quote should say clearly which government and third party charges the client will need to pay in addition. The Department publishes its current charges, and those figures change, usually on 1 July each year.

Within those two rules, firms structure their fees in different ways. Some charge a fixed fee for a defined scope of work, so the client knows the total before the matter begins and the fee does not change if the work takes longer than expected. Some charge by the hour against an estimate. Some divide the matter into stages, such as advice and preparation, lodgement, response to Department correspondence, and review, with a fee for each stage that is only payable if that stage is reached. Each model has a logic. A fixed fee suits a client who wants certainty. An hourly fee suits a matter whose scope cannot be predicted. A staged fee suits a matter that may resolve early.

The questions a person should ask before signing any costs agreement are the same whatever the model. What exactly is included in the fee. What happens if the Department asks for further information. What happens if the application is refused and review is needed. Whether the fee covers preparing the client for an interview or hearing. Whether disbursements are included or additional. What the payment terms are. A firm that answers those questions clearly in writing is behaving as the legislation requires.

Two warnings apply. Section 281 of the Migration Act makes it an offence for a person who is neither a registered migration agent nor an Australian legal practitioner to ask for or receive a fee for immigration assistance, and a fee paid in breach of that section cannot be recovered through the courts by the person who charged it. A person who is asked to pay someone who is neither registered nor a practising lawyer should not pay. Separately, no lawyer or agent can guarantee a visa outcome. The decision is made by a delegate of the Minister, or by the Tribunal, on the evidence and the law. A representative who promises a result is making a promise they have no power to keep.

What can an immigration lawyer do that a registered migration agent cannot?

An immigration lawyer can represent a client in court, can give advice that is protected by legal professional privilege, and can advise on the legal questions outside migration law that a visa matter raises. Those three things are specific to lawyers. Everything else in a visa matter, from advice through lodgement to Tribunal review, can lawfully be done by either a lawyer or a registered migration agent.

Court representation is the clearest line. When the Administrative Review Tribunal affirms a refusal or cancellation, the decision can be challenged in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, and in some cases the Federal Court of Australia or the High Court, on the ground that the Tribunal made a legal error. That is judicial review. It is not a fresh hearing on the merits. The court asks only whether the Tribunal applied the law correctly and followed the process the law requires. Identifying a jurisdictional error, drafting the grounds, preparing the written case and appearing before a judge are all legal practice, and a registered migration agent cannot do them. A person whose matter may end in court is better served by a lawyer from the beginning, because the record that goes before the court is built during the Department and Tribunal stages, and a lawyer builds it with that possibility in mind.

Legal professional privilege is the second line. The privilege protects confidential communications between a lawyer and a client made for the dominant purpose of giving or receiving legal advice, or for use in litigation. It exists so that a client can tell the lawyer everything without fear that the conversation will be used against them. In a migration matter this matters in a practical way. A person deciding whether to disclose a past event, or how to explain an inconsistency, can discuss it fully with a lawyer and receive advice on the consequences before anything is said to the Department. The lawyer's duty to the court means the lawyer will not help conceal something that must be disclosed, but the client hears the advice first. Communications with a non-lawyer agent are confidential under the Code of Conduct, but they are not privileged, and confidentiality can yield to a lawful demand in a way that privilege does not.

The third line is the reach of the advice. Migration decisions are shaped by facts from other areas of law. A conviction that seems minor to the client may engage the character test in section 501 or the general cancellation power in section 116, and the way a sentence was structured can matter. A relationship breakdown in a partner visa may raise family law questions about children and property alongside the family violence provisions of the Migration Regulations. A dispute about money paid to a previous representative may raise questions of contract and professional negligence. A lawyer is trained across these fields and can advise on how they interact, or can refer the client to the right specialist and coordinate the advice.

There is a fourth difference that is less often mentioned. A lawyer's duties to the court and to the administration of justice are enforced by the legal profession regulator, with consequences that include loss of the right to practise. Those duties mean a lawyer cannot present a false claim, cannot draft a statement the lawyer knows to be untrue, and cannot help a client mislead the Department. For an honest client, that is a protection. The lawyer's name on the application tells the delegate that a person bound by those duties has prepared it.

How do you check an immigration lawyer is legitimate?

A person can check that an immigration lawyer is legitimate by confirming that the lawyer holds a current Australian practising certificate on the public register kept by the legal profession regulator in their state or territory. In New South Wales that register is kept by the Law Society of New South Wales.

For a registered migration agent the check is different. The Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority keeps a public register of every current registered migration agent, searchable by name or registration number. A person who describes themselves as a migration agent but does not appear on that register is not registered and is committing an offence under section 280 if they give immigration assistance for a fee.

The two registers do not overlap for lawyers with unrestricted practising certificates, because since 22 March 2021 those lawyers cannot be registered migration agents. A lawyer who says they are also a registered migration agent is either a holder of a restricted practising certificate operating under transitional arrangements, or is mistaken. Either way, the practising certificate register is the check that matters for a lawyer.

Beyond registration, there are signs that separate a professional from someone to avoid. A legitimate lawyer gives written costs disclosure and a written costs agreement before taking money. A legitimate lawyer is appointed on Form 956 so that the Department knows who acts and where to send correspondence. A legitimate lawyer asks detailed questions about the client's history before giving advice, because the advice depends on the answers. A legitimate lawyer explains the weaknesses in the case as well as the strengths.

The warning signs are equally clear. A promise of a guaranteed outcome. Advice to leave something out of an application, or to give a version of events the client knows is untrue. A request for payment in cash without a receipt or without a costs agreement. A refusal to put the scope of work in writing. Pressure to sign immediately. Any of these should end the conversation. The Department and the Tribunal decide visa matters on evidence and law, and no representative has influence over either beyond the quality of the material they put forward.

Which visa matters do immigration lawyers commonly handle?

Immigration lawyers in Australia most commonly act in partner visas, protection visas, visa refusals and cancellations, and the review of those decisions, because these are the matters where the law is contested, the evidence is personal and the consequences of error are severe. Skilled, employer sponsored, student and visitor visas are also handled by lawyers, particularly where a refusal or a character issue has arisen, but the bulk of contested migration work sits in the family and protection streams.

Partner visas are the largest single area. The onshore Subclass 820 and Subclass 801 combination, the offshore Subclass 309 and Subclass 100 combination, and the Subclass 300 prospective marriage visa all turn on the same question: whether the relationship is genuine and continuing, assessed against the financial, household, social and commitment aspects set out in the Migration Regulations. The evidence is intimate and the Department tests it closely. Complications arise where the applicant does not hold a substantive visa and Schedule 3 applies, where a sponsor has sponsored before and the limitations in regulation 1.20J are engaged, where the relationship has ended through family violence, or where an earlier application was refused. Partner visa lawyers deal with all of these, and with the refusal of a partner visa and the review that follows.

Protection visas are the second major area. An application for a Subclass 866 protection visa is decided on whether the applicant is a refugee within the meaning of section 5H of the Migration Act, or is otherwise owed complementary protection under section 36(2)(aa) because there is a real risk of significant harm on return. The applicant's written statement, the Department interview, and the response to country information are legal work of a particular kind. They require the applicant's own account to be taken carefully, organised against the statutory test, and kept consistent across every stage. A protection visa refusal carries one of the shortest review deadlines in the migration system, and the Tribunal cannot extend it.

Visa refusals and cancellations across all subclasses form the third area, because they are where representation matters most. A refusal decision must be read closely to identify what the delegate actually found, whether the finding was open on the evidence, and whether the applicant can meet the criterion at review. A cancellation notice must be answered within its deadline with evidence and legal argument directed at the specific ground. Both are matters in which a person who acts alone is at a disadvantage against a Department that knows the law.

Review and appeal is the fourth. Merits review at the Administrative Review Tribunal is a fresh consideration of the application on the law and the evidence as they stand at the time of the Tribunal hearing, which means new evidence can be put forward and weaknesses in the original application can be repaired. Preparing a Tribunal matter properly involves written submissions, a considered bundle of evidence, preparation of the applicant and any witnesses for the hearing, and appearance on the day. Where the Tribunal affirms the decision, judicial review in the courts is the remaining step and is lawyers' work only.

How do you choose an immigration lawyer?

A person should choose an immigration lawyer whose practice is concentrated in migration law, who will personally handle or directly supervise the matter, who explains the risks as plainly as the strengths, and who puts the scope of work and the fee in writing before starting. Those four tests separate a lawyer who will serve the client well from one who will not.

Concentration in migration law matters because the field changes constantly. The Regulations are amended many times a year. Ministerial directions under section 499 of the Act change how delegates and the Tribunal weigh factors. Tribunal and court decisions reshape how criteria are read. A lawyer who does a partner visa once a year cannot keep up with that. A lawyer who does them every week can. The person should ask what proportion of the lawyer's work is migration law and what types of matters make up that work.

Who does the work matters because a firm's name on the door does not mean the person the client met is the person who prepares the application. The client should ask who will draft the statements and submissions, who will respond to the Department, who will appear at any hearing, and who will answer questions along the way. A clear answer is a good sign.

Candour about risk matters because a lawyer who says only encouraging things is not advising. Every migration matter has weak points. A responsible lawyer identifies them at the first consultation, explains what they mean, and sets out what can be done about them. If a case cannot succeed, a responsible lawyer says so and does not take the fee. The client should be more reassured by a lawyer who names the problems than by one who does not.

Written scope and fee matter because they are the client's protection. Legal profession legislation requires costs disclosure and a costs agreement. The document should say what is included, what is excluded, what happens if the matter goes further than expected, and how the fee is to be paid. A lawyer who provides that document without being asked is complying with the law and treating the client properly.

A person can prepare for the first consultation by gathering the documents the lawyer will need to give useful advice. Current passport. Any visa grant or refusal letters. Any correspondence from the Department. Details of every previous visa held in Australia and any refusal in any country. For a partner visa, the basic facts of the relationship and its history. For a protection claim, a private and honest account of what has happened and what the person fears. The more complete the picture at the start, the more precise the advice.

How My Migration Lawyers acts in immigration matters

My Migration Lawyers is an Australian immigration law firm whose practice is partner visas, protection visas and the refusals of both. The firm is led by its Principal Lawyer, Weiwei Zhang, an Australian legal practitioner. The firm acts for clients across Australia by video consultation.

The firm's work is concentrated in the matters described in this article where a lawyer's involvement changes what can be done. My Migration Lawyers acts in onshore and offshore partner visa applications, including Schedule 3 waiver cases, sponsorship limitation cases and family violence cases. It prepares protection visa applications for people already in Australia, including complementary protection claims and claims based on religion or sexuality, and it prepares applicants for the Department interview. It acts in the review of partner and protection visa refusals before the Administrative Review Tribunal, from the initial assessment of whether review should be sought through to the hearing.

The firm deals with complex cases as a matter of course. Many of the matters it takes on involve a previous refusal, a legislative bar, an inconsistency in the record, or an earlier application prepared by someone else that must now be repaired. The firm acts in many matters of exactly this type and is equipped to handle them. Every matter begins with a full account of the client's history so that the advice given is the advice the case actually requires.

Further information about the firm is available on the About My Migration Lawyers page and the profile of Weiwei Zhang, Principal Lawyer. A person who would like advice on a partner visa, a protection visa or a refusal of either can request a consultation with an immigration lawyer online, and the firm will respond by email.