It is widely agreed by those experienced with Australian immigration matters that Australian immigration laws (including rules made in immigration court cases), policies and procedures are amongst the toughest and legally most complex in the world. Together, these 3 elements tell you what you must have or do to get the kind of Australian Immigration Visa you want. It is not as easy as it sounds.

Can Australian Immigration Officers give you legal advice on your immigration case?

It is a common public misconception that Australian immigration officers (whether in Australia or at overseas Embassies or High Commissions) give LEGAL ADVICE on Australian immigration matters - under the law, because they are non-lawyers, they DO NOT and CANNOT do this. What they do give is information. However many of our clients indignantly feel that they do not often get 'the full picture' from  Australian immigration officers. Some even complain strongly that they feel they were misled, deceived or otherwise not treated fairly by Australian immigration authorities.

So what does this all mean and what can you do about it? To Australian Immigration & Citizenship Law Advisers it means that preparing an Australian visa application should never be about 'merely filling-in forms'. Even a so-called 'straightforward' Australian tourist visa application (particularly by applicants from certain countries) can fail resulting in a frustrating and costly experience to the applicant. Serious strategic thinking and planning and painstaking study are all indispensable to the preparation of a good application with the best chance of success. Our experienced Australian Immigration Lawyers will assist you to take the proper course in applying for an Australian VISA.

In preparing a 'successful' Australian visa application, it is critically important first, to know what information you legally have to disclose, second, what information you legally do NOT have to disclose ... before you can properly decide ... third, exactly what you should only disclose and, ... fourth, what you do not and must not disclose or ... fifth, should nevertheless disclose because it is legally relevant and so will add greatly to the success of your application.

Too often our advisors and lawyers have heard the complaint from that despite their being "totally honest with Australian immigration authorities", they were still rejected. On our analysis, it seems that 'naive or uninformed honesty' on the part of applicants can often and easily lead to unnecessary misunderstandings or suspicion on the part of Australian immigration officers, with disastrous consequences to applicants.

It will in our view cost you dearly to be naively or ignorantly 'honest' which often happens when you are 'honest' without first being legally informed. In other words, you would potentially be saving yourself great expense and disappointment (due to rejection of application) if you get legal advice on your case before you speak to Australian immigration authorities.

If your case is strong, legal advice from our lawyers to fully check your case out should not cost you 'the earth' and in return you will have every confidence and peace of mind when you lodge your application. These comments are given from direct and first-hand experience with our clients and from working for many years in the Australian immigration industry. (In light of the above comments, for those 'doing it yourself', please note: the legal consequences for not disclosing what you must legally disclose are serious. If unsure, please seek legal advice from our immigration lawyers).

There are obviously many reasons why visa applications fail. Based on our advisors and lawyers experience with clients, we have come to understand how so very easy it is for the legally unsavvy person (otherwise with a reasonably good chance of success) to fail in his/her application, resulting at best in the possibility for a legal appeal (to the MRT, RRT, AAT or the courts) (Note: MRT, RRT, AAT are all tribunals involved with immigration appeals). And at  worse, you will be left with little or no chance of success in any future or subsequent visa application to visit or stay in Australia.

Often a common reason for application failure is the legal insufficiency (in legal terms, lack of 'substance') of the submitted documentary evidence. In other cases it can be due to submitting the 'wrong' kind of evidence with the application. This is due usually but not always to a lack of a clear understanding of the legal criteria (to be found in the immigration law itself, ... not in brochures, leaflets, handouts and pamphlets) to be satisfied by the applicant.

There are numerous other pitfalls to the unwary which, whether due to misunderstanding complex and (often) ambivalent laws, ... or acting on misleading or incorrect information given by Australian immigration authorities, ... or carelessness, ... or misplaced confidence, ... or lack of legal application to the facts of your case, ... result in many hundreds of thousands of unsuccessful Australian visa applications each year, many of which with proper legal guidance and assistance would no doubt have succeeded.

Australian Immigration & Citizenship Law Advisers believes that it is of paramount importance to 'get it right the first time' when making your Australian visa application. A good reason for this is to avoid wasting money - and often quite a lot of it. For instance, the Australian Government application fees (as at Nov 2007) for family-based permanent visas range from A$1390 to A$1990. For business permanent visas, it is in excess of A$5000. These fees will NOT BE REFUNDED TO YOU by the Australian Government if your application is unsuccessful.

There are three more critical reasons as to why you should aim to get it right the first time.

Firstly, you may not be legally entitled to lodge an appeal because under the law not every rejected applicant is legally entitled to appeal.

Secondly, even if you are legally entitled to appeal, you may be prevented by the prohibitive government appeal application fee alone of A$1400 (as at Nov 2007).

And thirdly, once your Australian visa application is rejected, it becomes very very difficult if not impossible to LEGALLY 'change your story' when lodging your appeal or a fresh new Australian visa application. This is because your 'unsuccessful Australian visa application' is normally retained in one form or another by the  Government for a significant time and it may be used to check against any different, conflicting or inconsistent claims you make in your later fresh new application/s. 

We have become aware of some of these problems because of our experience in representing clients (who engaged us AFTER getting their rejections) to 'legally unravel and rationalise' claims made in their old (rejected) applications so that the new fresh application appears to 'make LEGAL sense'.

Obviously also, if your application is rejected, this would usually result in much time-wasting, mental and emotional stress, depression and frustration. For some people, these reasons alone may be serious enough for 'getting your via application right the first time'. You should be aware that if you lodge even a slightly 'defective or insufficient' application, you run a real yet unnecessary risk (and a high risk if you are dealing with immigration officers with a 'tough' reputation) of receiving a rejection of your application.

AICLA's policy therefore is to prepare and manage all visa applications using caution at all times since, in practice, you have only ONE BEST CHANCE to convince your Australian immigration case officer to approve your application. We are especially well focussed on advising our clients just what and when that 'one best chance' is or will be, and how it could be used to maximise the odds for success. Remember it is better to err on the side of caution, and no Australian visa application should be treated as 'an easy job' - that is, if entering or remaining (temporarily or permanently) in Australia is very important to you.

Although Australian Immigration & Citizenship Law Advisers professional immigration lawyers' fees for carrying responsibility for your case are not amongst the cheapest in the Australian immigration industry (but neither are we the most expensive for that matter), you should be informed of the arguments against seeking the cheapest on offer.

As everyone knows, ...  you get what you pay for.  So if the success of your Australian visa application is very important to you, consider the 'pennies' you would have saved in getting a rejected visa application because you took the real risk of engaging some consultant not up to the mark.

Further, as we have stated, you do not get any refund of the substantial government application fees if your application is rejected. Then there is the issue of a real and serious damage to you in your future fresh new visa applications because of what has been stated or not stated or how it has been stated in your rejected application when it was  handled by yourself or less qualified less competent consultants.

Our years of experience in handling Australian immigration and visa application are always a benefit to our clients.

Many of these points have already been aired above or in other pages on this site. You therefore have the information you need before you decide on just who to engage.

Although Australian Immigration & Citizenship Law Advisers' work is predominantly managing Australian immigration cases and dealing with Australian immigration authorities for our clients, we also arrange for the delivery of a variety of legal and professional services that in our view directly or indirectly (but significantly)  impact upon the outcome of your managed case.

Australian Immigration & Citizenship Law Advisers' capacity and ability to do this is vital to the success of the managed case given that many immigration cases we have managed are complex and usually involve one or more Australian immigration-related matters which must be strategically handled just as professionally if the outcome of the Australian immigration case itself is to be successful. (To see our AUstralian immigration related services, click on:  Our Services and scroll to Part B)

For instance, in a spouse-based case, it can often help to have relevant legal wills drawn, or property brought from single ownership to joint ownership, tenancy contracts legally varied, or joint statutory declarations prepared.

In other cases, clients may benefit from legal advice and assistance concerning  legal adoptions, and with marriages involving minors, or legal advice in determining the legal commencement of a defacto relationship, or even in giving legal advice and attending interviews with you when  dealing with Australian government agencies (like Centrelink). 

These and numerous other examples are all important legal concepts, the understanding and implementation of which can very often be vital to the success of failure of your spouse's visa application. 

And in the field of business-related visas, a proper legal understanding and implementation of, for instance,  the correct business partnership (according to a legal deed) or business/company structure can be vitally important not only to the success of the visa application itself but also to the success of the business itself.

It is simply impossible to exhaustively  list all these kinds of Australian immigration-related issues, the correct and professional handling of which are vital to the Australian visa application concerned. Australian Immigration & Citizenship Law Advisers is one of the few Australian immigration consultancy firms able to have all these complex legal issues competently and confidently handled using our own in-house consulting lawyers, CGN LEGAL, Barristers & Solicitors. And in relation to other kinds of Australian immigration-related issues, we are able to call on our professional network of  associates to do the job.

In closing, we hope we have gone some way in pointing out the many pitfalls for the inexperienced person or less competent consultant who prepares and manages an Australian visa application at first instance or on appeal. If you feel, after reviewing all of the above points, that Australian Immigration & Citizenship Law Advisers meets your standards, then why not contact us today, 24 hours a day (click on: Contact Us) to discuss how we can best help you.

1. You receive high integrity, problem-solving, competitively-priced Australian immigration services from a firm with its own in-house law firm of  practising, certificated Australian lawyers (attorneys) specialising in Australian immigration law, policy and procedure. Many or most of our competitors are registered agents who are non-practising non-certificated Australian immigration lawyers (Why not check this out for yourself before hiring).

2. You receive (where applicable) free of charge the benefits and privileges of client-solicitor privilege (also called legal professional privilege), which lawyers only can provide. This is particularly important when legally protecting your sensitive, confidential and private information against public disclosure is in question. Non-lawyer migration agents are not able to provide this benefit to their clients - we can. 

3. You are able to use a 'one-stop-shop' service that provides you with the freedom to easily, economically, and instantly access a wide selection of  Australian immigration-related legal and professional services. To see our Australian immigration-related services, click on:  Our Services) (Compare this to the service offered by our competitors)

4. You receive FREE general and accurate legal advice in the free  initial assessment of your chances of getting the Australian visa you want. (click on: Free Assessment)

5. You receive genuine value-for-money services which are highly 'strategised',  highly individualised and geared to protecting future fresh applications (we are strategically cautious about not burning your 'future Australian immigration bridges' - should the need for this arise in the future). All this from a firm with legal knowledge, experience and expertise in ALL (not just some) areas of immigration law practice. In contrast, most of our competitors "specialise" only in some areas of Australian immigration work and leave other areas out.

6. You can be confident of dealing with a firm with a high, proven, track-record of success. (to see, click on: Successful Cases) (Compare this to the service offered by our competitors)