The questions we are asked most.

Yes. Immigration assistance is given by Arash Barinder Singh (Arsh Dhillon), a registered migration agent. Our registration number and a direct link to our entry on the Register of Migration Agents are in the footer of every page.

Registration is public and free to check. If you are paying someone for immigration assistance, make sure that person is authorised to provide it. In Australia, immigration assistance may lawfully be provided by a registered migration agent, an Australian legal practitioner acting in connection with legal practice, or another person who is exempt under the Migration Act. Registered agents can be checked on the OMARA Register.

No. No Worries Migration is an Australian migration practice. It is not a law firm, and we are not a firm of solicitors.

What that means in practice: we give immigration assistance, which is a defined activity under the Migration Act 1958 and is the work a registered migration agent is authorised to do – preparing and lodging visa applications, advising you about them, and representing you at the Administrative Review Tribunal. We do not give legal advice, and we do not act for you in a court.

Nothing on this website is legal advice. It is general information only.

No. You are entitled to prepare and lodge your own application, and the Department publishes the forms and the requirements. Plenty of straightforward applications are made without any help at all.

People engage us when the matter is not straightforward – a refusal, a previous visa problem, a complicated relationship or work history, a deadline that cannot be missed. If we think your matter is simple enough to do yourself, we will tell you that.

Read the decision letter first, and note the date you received it. The letter will usually tell you whether the decision can be reviewed and by when.

Some visa refusal, cancellation, nomination and sponsorship decisions may be reviewable by the Administrative Review Tribunal. Whether review rights exist, who can apply and the applicable deadline depend on the particular decision and circumstances. Where a deadline does apply it is set by law, counted in days, and generally cannot be extended – not by the Tribunal, the Department or us.

Bring us the letter, with its date, as early as you can.

Merits review means the Tribunal looks at the decision afresh on the facts and the law, and can make a different decision.

Yes – representing you at the Administrative Review Tribunal is immigration assistance, it is work a registered migration agent is authorised to do, and it is a substantial part of this practice.

Judicial review is different from merits review.

A court conducting judicial review does not decide whether you should get the visa, and it does not look at your case again on the facts. It decides whether the decision was made lawfully. If the court finds a legal error of the right kind, the usual result is that the decision is set aside and sent back to be made again by a different decision-maker – not that a visa is granted.

This is general information about how the system works. Whether it applies to your decision is a legal question for a lawyer.

Broadly, a jurisdictional error is a legal error that goes to whether the decision-maker had the authority to make the decision they made. Errors of that kind have been found where, for example, a decision-maker failed to consider something the law required them to consider, denied a person a fair hearing where one was required, or applied the wrong legal test.

That is a general description of a legal concept, offered so you understand what the words mean when you read them. It is not advice about your case. Whether anything of that kind happened in your matter is a legal question, and answering it is legal work that a lawyer does, not a migration agent.

No. We do not provide immigration legal advice, and we do not prepare, file or run court proceedings for clients. If judicial review is being considered, you should speak to an immigration lawyer, and you should do it quickly, because court time limits are short and strict.

We will tell you plainly when that is the stage you have reached, explain in general terms how the process differs from Tribunal review, and point you to where to get the right help. The courts publish their own guidance for people who do not have a lawyer – the links are below.

These are the official sources. We are giving you the address, not advice about your case.

• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia – where most migration judicial review applications are made, and which publishes information for people representing themselves.
• Federal Court of Australia.
• Legal Aid Queensland – for free or low-cost legal help, if you are eligible.
• Queensland Law Society – to find a solicitor.

It depends on the matter, so we quote on the matter rather than publishing a price list. What is fixed is how you find out: before any work starts you get a written service agreement setting out the scope of the work, our fees and any disbursements, and you get an itemised invoice and a receipt for money received.

Government charges are separate. The visa application charge is set by the Department, is paid to the Department, and is not our fee.

Money paid in advance for work not yet performed is held separately as client money and dealt with in accordance with the Code of Conduct. Amounts are treated as professional fees only when they become payable in accordance with the service agreement and the work performed.

No. A registered migration agent cannot guarantee that a visa will be granted or that a review will succeed.

Visa applications are determined by the Department of Home Affairs. Where review rights exist, the Administrative Review Tribunal may conduct merits review of a reviewable decision. Courts deal with judicial review proceedings concerning the lawfulness of administrative decisions; they do not simply decide a visa application again on its merits. Court work is legal practice, and we refer it to an Australian legal practitioner.

The Code of Conduct also prevents a registered migration agent from suggesting that registration gives the agent a special or privileged relationship with government officials, or that the agent can procure a particular decision.

What we can do is assess the matter honestly, identify the legal and evidentiary issues, explain the risks, and prepare the strongest application, response or review case that the facts and law support.

Tell us first – most problems are a misunderstanding and can be sorted out quickly. If that does not resolve it, you can complain to the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority, which regulates registered migration agents. You do not need our permission and you do not need a reason from us.