We aim to be accessible, inclusive and progressive in our approach. Our focus is people, not prestige.
A lawyer provides advice and recommendations based on our interpretation of law and policy. A lawyer’s job is to present you with your options so that you can make the best decision for you. We must act in your best interests.
An immigration lawyer cannot make a decision on how to proceed on your behalf. We cannot mislead the Court or the Tribunal. We cannot act unethically. We cannot knowingly provide fraudulent documents to any authority. We cannot manufacture evidence. We cannot provide financial, business, tax or investment advice. We cannot provide you with a guarantee of success.
LIV Accredited Specialisation is a mark of excellence. Becoming an Accredited Specialist demonstrates a lawyer’s dedication to going above and beyond to become an expert in a specialised area of law.
Ultimately, this expertise benefits clients. Specialised lawyers know the substantive and procedural laws that apply to the cases they bring on behalf of clients. They understand how to gather evidence and build a compelling case. As a result, they are often able not only to win more cases but to achieve superior outcomes.
Lawyers have significantly more experience with interpreting and applying the law than Migration Agents, in many cases. Information which you disclose to a lawyer is subject to legal professional privilege, meaning your lawyer cannot divulge or be compelled to provide information about you without your permission. Information which you provide to a Migration Agent does not enjoy the same protections. In addition, Migration Agents are only subject to a single set of conduct rules, where lawyers are required to adhere to several different sets of legal and professional conduct rules which include very specific provisions on ethics and accountability.
Please refer to our ‘Contact Us’ page. We look forward to hearing from you!
In a one hour paid consultation we will endeavour to understand the ins and outs of your situation and formulate a strategy to meet your needs. On occasion, we may require additional time to research options so that we can ensure you are receiving the best possible advice and recommendation on how to proceed.
We know that your immigration matter is fundamental to your future. Rest assured that we take our responsibility to help you very seriously.
We will do our best to understand the basics of your query and provide potential options, along with identifying whether we as a firm are able to assist you in achieving your goals.
Because the call is only 15 minutes, this does not constitute formal migration advice and we recommend that you do not rely on any information you receive during this call. Advice can be confirmed only once we have reviewed any relevant documentation and thoroughly considered all circumstances and possible risks. This is best achieved through a one hour paid consultation.
If an interpreter is required for your booking, please arrange a trusted friend, family member, or other interpreter to attend.
Complaints about the conduct of Registered Migration Agents can be made to the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA). You can find the applicable steps at the OMARA website.
In the event that you have a complaint about Sandpiper Immigration Lawyers, you should first try to resolve your complaint with the lawyer responsible for your case. We will deal with any concern you have promptly and professionally.If your complaint cannot be satisfactorily resolved, the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner is responsible for investigating complaints against lawyers in Victoria.
Our fee estimate is based on the amount of time and complexity of the work we anticipate will be required in your case. Where new information or instructions are received that alter the anticipated work, or complexity of the work, this may occasion a change to the estimated fees.
Generally, you will be paying any professional fees and disbursements into our trust account.
This payment can be made by EFT or EFTPOS. We do not accept cash or cheques at this time.
If you are not paying our fees into our trust account, we will issue you with an interim account (invoice) upon completion of various milestones in the matter. The invoice(s) will specify the method of payments available.
Our invoice is payable within seven (7) days of receipt. Receipt is deemed to be 2 business days after the date of our invoice. The account will be a tax invoice and briefly describe the work we have done. If you require an itemised account, you must request this within thirty (30) days after you receive the account. An itemised account describes in more detail how our fee is made up.
If you do not pay our invoice(s), we may be entitled to exercise a common law right known as a ‘solicitor’s lien’. The lien allows us to retain your documents until our bill is paid.
If a bill remains unpaid 30 days after we gave it to you, we may charge you interest at a rate not exceeding the Cash Rate Target, as fixed by the Reserve Bank of Australia, plus 2 per cent, at the date the bill is issued.
When we receive money in our trust account, we will provide you with a receipt.
Once we have completed services for you or paid for a disbursement for you, we will issue you with an invoice (we refer to this as a “Trust Transfer Invoice”) so that we can draw on the money you have deposited into our trust account. For this reason, if we receive money into our trust account on your behalf, you authorise us to draw on that money to pay any amount due to us in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Law and the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 relating to the withdrawal of trust money for legal costs.
At the end of your matter, we will provide you with a trust statement if you have deposited money into our trust account.
Refusals happen rarely, but when they do it can be extremely upsetting. There are often steps we can take after a visa or appeal has been refused in order to fight the decision or try again. Unfortunately, if the work outlined in our Risk Management Sheet and/or Professional Services Agreement has been completed, then we need to be paid for the work done, even though it did not turn out as we had all hoped.
If the visa or appeal has been refused before we have been able to complete the work anticipated in the Risk Management Sheet or Professional Services Agreement, then we may be able to organise a partial refund of the fees paid. This will depend on how much of the work has been completed.
Your visa or appeal will be placed in a queue. The Department or Tribunal will then assess the applications in the order they were received. If you have engaged us for your visa or appeal matter, we will provide you with periodic status updates and updates when we receive any communication from either the Department of Home Affairs or the Tribunal.
Visa processing times are advertised on the Department of Home Affairs website. It is important to note that the estimated processing times are updated frequently. To check your visa’s current estimated processing times please visit the Department of Home Affairs website here and use the website’s search function to look up your specific visa.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has a lot of cases waiting for a hearing at the present time. Most applications tend to take between 18 months and 4 years to receive a hearing date; however, this very much depends on the type of case and workload of the Tribunal.
Unfortunately, in most cases we cannot request that your visa application be expedited with the Department of Home Affairs.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has strict guidelines on when they will agree to expedite a case. Generally, these require that the applicant’s situation be worse than others waiting for the same type of appeal. While we may be able to request your case be expedited, it is entirely up to the Tribunal whether they agree to do so.
If you have engaged us for your visa or appeal matter, we will provide you with periodic status updates and updates when we receive any communication from either the Department of Home Affairs or the Tribunal. You are always welcome to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your matter in the meantime.
When we lodge a visa or citizenship application on your behalf via the immi account, we use our firm immi account so that we can keep track of all applications. If you would like to be able to see this in your own immi account as well, we can arrange this for you. Just let us know!
Every application is different and some are more quickly finalised than others. The reasons for this are not always clear; however, we will endeavor to ensure that your application is as decision-ready as possible to avoid unnecessary delays.
Your bridging visa will either become active upon the date of grant, or the expiry of your substantive visa. Your bridging visa immi grant notice will provide you with further information. You can check the status of your visa online using the Department’s website VEVO.
If you are appealing a decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal within the timeframe specified on the decision-notice, and you hold a bridging visa A, B or C at the time of lodging the appeal, that visa will continue while awaiting the outcome at the Tribunal.
The Department will not send a new bridging visa grant notice. Instead, you should use the Department’s website VEVO to check your bridging visa is now active and download a copy of that information for your own use.
Your visa grant notice will list the conditions that have been imposed on your bridging visa. Some bridging visas come with more conditions than others. Most notably, your visa may not allow you to either study or work. You can check your visa conditions online using the Department’s website VEVO.
The only bridging visa that allows international travel is a bridging visa B, and then only while the ‘travel period’ on that visa is valid. If you hold a bridging visa A, you can apply for a bridging visa B for travel. If you hold a bridging visa B, you can apply for a further bridging visa B to renew the travel period, as needed. If you hold a bridging visa C or E it is not possible to obtain a bridging visa B for travel and departing Australia is not recommended as you would need to obtain a new visa to return.
Yes, If you are experiencing financial hardship or have a compelling need to study, you may be eligible to have the no study or no work condition removed from your bridging visa. This can be done by applying for a new bridging visa with a change of visa conditions. We can assist with this application if needed.
You can book your medicals using the HAP ID in the top right-hand corner of your eMedical referral letter. If you do not yet have this letter, please ask your lawyer.
You must only complete your medicals using a provider approved by the Department of Home Affairs for visa purposes.
You can find a link to the Bupa website to book medicals in Australia here. If you are outside Australia, you can find your nearest approved physician by searching for your country here.
Your medical booking letter will let you know what to bring to your appointment.
For most applications, you must obtain character clearances for any country you have lived in for 12 months or more cumulatively in the past 10 years (or since turning 16).
You can apply for your Australian Federal Police Check here. Please use ‘Immigration/Citizenship’ as the reason for applying, where indicated in the form.
For police checks for all other countries, please search for the relevant country here and follow the instructions applicable to your situation.
If you have lived in the United States, you may also need to obtain a State level clearance. Please speak to the relevant justice department in your states of residence for further information on how to apply.
Once your visa has been approved our engagement will end. This means that you are now responsible for the management of your visa status.
If you have further questions that you would like to talk to us directly about, we recommend that you book a further consultation so that we can make sure you are getting considered and up-to-date advice.
Book a consult! If your friend or family member would like to speak with us directly and is not already a client, we would also be happy to offer them a free 15 minute phone advice session to discuss their query.
Once our engagement has ended (meaning all services we had agreed to are completed, or you/we have advised that the lawyer-client relationship has broken down), you are responsible for keeping up-to-date with any change in the immigration landscape. We will not contact you with changes because the immigration landscape changes frequently and it is not possible to contact everyone we have ever talked to with every change that might apply to their situation!
You can find information on bringing cats and dogs to Australia on agriculture.gov.au (see here). Further information on importing dogs can be found here. For other animals, you may wish to contact the Department of Agriculture directly.
If you have applied for a permanent or provisional visa, you are likely eligible for Medicare even before it is approved. The same is true of New Zealand citizens, or citizens of other countries which have a reciprocal healthcare arrangement with Australia.
Ultimately, eligibility is in the hands of Medicare. You can find further information on general eligibility here.
You can find further information about Reciprocal Healthcare Arrangements here.
We cannot advise on eligibility for Centrelink as eligibility is based on many contributing factors. We recommend that you contact Centrelink to determine your entitlements. You can do so by visiting their website here.
