inicio
Corporate sponsorship from the first nomination to permanent residence. Intellectual property that has to survive a sale. Family matters that cross a border.
We have at least twenty years' experience in each of our specialist fields and are qualified in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Every matter is handled by a senior team with decades of experience.
Before you spend anything, we tell you whether the matter can succeed. If we think it will fail we say so and we do not lodge it. Fees are agreed in writing before work starts.
Calls are booked rather than taken, so the lawyer who runs your matter is the one who answers. From the first conversation you will always know where your matter stands, what your options are and what happens next.
Principal Lawyer
Paula founded the practice and runs the immigration work: employer sponsorship, nominations, accredited sponsor status, sponsor obligations and audits and the road from a sponsored visa to permanent residence. She has practised immigration law since 2008 and works closely with a firm in the United Kingdom so a family matter spanning two jurisdictions can be handled here as one matter rather than two. Labour agreements and Designated Area Migration Agreements are a particular strength: thirteen operate across Australia and the concessions inside them regularly turn a hire another firm has called impossible into a straightforward one.
She is the person clients call before they make an offer and the one who answers when the Department asks for records. She reads a file the way an assessing officer will and says upfront where a stronger pathway exists, even where it means less work for her.
PhD physicist · UK and European patent attorney
Phil leads the intellectual property work: trade marks and the portfolio around them, IP strategy and the ownership questions that surface when a business is being sold. He holds a PhD in physics and is a UK and European patent attorney, with more than thirty years in intellectual property. IAM has named him one of the world's leading 300 IP strategists, 2018 to 2026.
He also advises on the National Innovation Visa, where the record of achievement sits in a portfolio, a publication list and a citation history. He came through that system himself: invited by the Australian Government to apply for a Global Talent visa, which was granted.
We act for employers who sponsor and for the people they sponsor. Most of our work is corporate: sponsorship, nominations, compliance and the road to permanent residence.
Trade marks, the portfolio around them and the ownership questions that surface when a business is being sold. Thirty years of global experience on the team.
Family matters that cross a border, run as one matter with a firm in the United Kingdom rather than two matters in parallel.
Most of our work is corporate immigration and most of it arrives with a matter already in hand.
We run the nomination and the visa together and tell you at the start what is realistic. Where accreditation applies, processing is faster and the nomination is lighter.
We take the whole thing end to end for one fee: becoming a sponsor, the nomination and the visa. We write the documents rather than sending you a checklist.
The move from a sponsored visa to permanent residence has its own timing and its own evidence. We track who is due and prepare it before it becomes urgent.
Sponsor obligations get monitored and audited and the records asked for are rarely the ones kept. We answer the request and put the position straight.
Most employers start with a single matter at a fixed fee and nothing beyond it. If you sponsor most years there is an arrangement that covers the whole year instead and we will tell you when it is worth having.
Everything we do for employersThirteen DAMAs operate across Australia, each with concessions on occupation lists, salary, English and age that can turn an impossible hire into a straightforward one.
The complex DAMA work other firms turn away is the work we know best.
Labour agreements and DAMAsEngineering & infrastructure · Perth
A Perth infrastructure firm needed an ongoing pipeline of skilled engineers rather than a one-off hire. We set up their sponsorship, then managed every nomination and visa that followed. Eight visas granted, no delays, no requests for further information.
Technology · time-critical start date
An employer had eight weeks before a new hire was due to start. We fast-tracked the eligibility assessment, lodged within two weeks and the visa was granted in time for the original start date.
Paula’s superb service and experience, her insight into taking the right actions at the right moment, were absolutely crucial to our successful visa applications. Her personalised and caring, case-by-case approach was not only highly effective, but also reassuring and stress-relieving throughout.
During COVID when the world was on fire, Paula provided me with amazing assistance to obtain an Australian Permanent Resident visa. Not only that, but it was a National Innovation Visa which I am super proud of receiving… Getting my Visa has been life changing and I am very grateful to Paula for all her assistance.
If you already sponsor people, the first call is usually a look across your workforce: who expires when, who is close to permanent residence and where your obligations sit. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards. If a matter needs real work on the call itself, we will tell you and offer a paid session instead.
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An Australian legal practice built around three kinds of work that keep arriving together: sponsoring people, protecting what they make and families that cross a border.
We have at least twenty years' experience in each of our specialist fields and are qualified in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Every matter is handled by a senior team with decades of experience.
Most of the work is corporate immigration: employers who sponsor and the people they sponsor. Around it sits the intellectual property that often explains why a particular person is worth moving across the world and the family matters that follow when they bring a life with them.
The practice is deliberately small. That is what makes it possible to say no to work we are not right for and to give the same person to a matter from the first call to the last.
Before you spend anything we tell you honestly how the matter looks. Years of preparing applications mean we know how an assessing officer reads a file and we build yours to answer their questions before they are asked. Where a stronger pathway exists we say so upfront, even where it means less work for us.
Most matters run on a fixed fee, agreed in writing before work starts. Where an hourly rate applies you are told who will do the work and at what rate and if an estimate needs to change you hear about it before it changes.
The person who scopes your matter is the person who runs it and the person who answers when a department asks a question. Nothing is handed down to someone you have not met.
We are qualified to practise law in Australia and work closely with a firm in the United Kingdom on matters that need a lawyer on the ground there. A matter that spans the two countries is coordinated as one matter rather than two, which is faster and costs less than a client translating between two firms working separately.
Most of our work arrives with a matter already in hand: a person chosen, a date promised, a deal in progress. The question is whether it can be done and how fast, not whether a pathway exists somewhere in the abstract.
Most employers start with a single matter at a fixed fee and nothing beyond it. If you sponsor most years there is an arrangement that covers the whole year instead and we will tell you when it is worth having.
Everything we do for employersinicio
Corporate sponsorship from the first nomination to permanent residence, DAMAs where other firms say no and the visas built for exceptional talent.
A hire falls through because nobody checked the salary against the income threshold before the offer went out. A nomination sits half finished while a start date gets closer. An audit notice arrives and the records it asks for turn out to be scattered across three inboxes. None of this is unusual. It is what happens when sponsorship is treated as paperwork rather than a matter with its own timeline.
We run it the other way. One lawyer manages the sponsorship, the nomination and the visa together, tells you at the start what is realistic and puts the fee in writing before work begins. If a hire is not going to work, we say so early rather than after the fee has been spent.
Becoming a sponsor, nominations and the Skills in Demand visa, built around mining, construction and infrastructure, healthcare, tech, high-end hospitality, research and innovation employers hiring on strong salaries.
Employer sponsored visasThirteen Designated Area Migration Agreements operate across Australia, including the Pilbara DAMA for Western Australian mining and resources employers.
Labour agreements and DAMAsAccreditation shortens processing times and lightens the paperwork on every nomination that follows, but the application itself is scrutinised closely: turnover, training expenditure, compliance history and workforce numbers all have to stand up. We prepare the application and the evidence behind it and keep the status current once it is granted.
Sponsor obligations are monitored and monitoring becomes an audit without much warning. The records asked for are rarely the ones kept in an easy-to-find place and an incomplete answer can put accreditation and future nominations at risk. We answer the request, put the position straight where it needs straightening and set up the record-keeping that avoids the same problem next time.
For people whose record of achievement already exists: granted patents, a publication list, a citation history, awards. One place where our immigration and intellectual property practices do the same job.
National Innovation VisaClubs, sporting organisations and individual athletes bring people to Australia to play, coach or train at a high level, usually against a tight season or competition calendar. We handle the Temporary Activity visa Sporting Activities stream and, where an athlete's record supports it, the Distinguished Talent pathway and we build in the lead time a season actually needs rather than the lead time a generic timeline assumes.
Thirteen DAMAs operate across Australia, each with concessions on occupation lists, salary, English and age that can turn an impossible hire into a straightforward one.
The complex DAMA work other firms turn away is the work we know best.
Labour agreements and DAMAsEngineering & infrastructure · Perth
A Perth infrastructure firm needed an ongoing pipeline of skilled engineers rather than a one-off hire. We set up their sponsorship, then managed every nomination and visa that followed. Eight visas granted, no delays, no requests for further information.
Technology · time-critical start date
An employer had eight weeks before a new hire was due to start. We fast-tracked the eligibility assessment, lodged within two weeks and the visa was granted in time for the original start date.
Paula's superb service and experience, her insight into taking the right actions at the right moment, were absolutely crucial to our successful visa applications…
Principal Lawyer
Paula founded the practice and runs the immigration work: employer sponsorship, nominations, accredited sponsor status, sponsor obligations and audits and the road from a sponsored visa to permanent residence. She has practised immigration law since 2008. Labour agreements and Designated Area Migration Agreements are a particular strength: thirteen operate across Australia and the concessions inside them regularly turn a hire another firm has called impossible into a straightforward one.
She is the one who answers when the Department asks for records and who tells you upfront how a file will read before anything is lodged.
If you are sponsoring for the first time or you already sponsor and need someone to take the whole thing over, the first call is a straightforward look at what you are trying to do and whether it will work. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards.
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For mining, construction and infrastructure, healthcare, tech, high-end hospitality, research and innovation employers sponsoring skilled hires on strong salaries. One lawyer, start to finish, fixed fee agreed before work begins.
Mining and construction employers usually come to us with the hard part already done: a candidate identified, a salary agreed, a start date the project needs. What is left is the part that can still go wrong. Sponsorship has to be current or established from scratch. The role has to be nominated correctly against the occupation list. The salary has to clear the relevant income threshold for the Skills in Demand visa and those thresholds move, so we check the current figure against the offer rather than working from what it was last year.
We tell you at the first call whether the hire will work, what it will cost and when the person can realistically start. If it will not work as proposed, we say so and look at what would make it work, including a labour agreement where the standard pathway does not fit.
If you have never sponsored before, this is the first step: establishing standard business sponsorship or applying for accredited status if your turnover and hiring volume support it. We prepare the application and the supporting evidence and tell you upfront which one fits your business.
The nomination and the Skills in Demand visa are run together, not handed off between people partway through. We check the occupation, the salary against the current income threshold and the evidence for genuine need before anything is lodged, so an examination or a request for more information is the exception rather than the routine.
Most sponsored employees want a permanent outcome eventually and the transition has its own timing and its own evidence. We track who on your team is coming up to eligibility and prepare the application before it becomes urgent, so retention is not left to chance.
Sponsorship does not end at grant. Obligations continue for the life of the sponsorship and monitoring can turn into an audit without much notice. We set up record-keeping that holds up under review and step in directly if a compliance notice arrives.
Engineering & infrastructure · Perth
A Perth infrastructure firm needed an ongoing pipeline of skilled engineers rather than a one-off hire. We set up their sponsorship, then managed every nomination and visa that followed. Eight visas granted, no delays, no requests for further information.
Technology · time-critical start date
An employer had eight weeks before a new hire was due to start. We fast-tracked the eligibility assessment, lodged within two weeks and the visa was granted in time for the original start date.
The Pilbara DAMA and twelve others across Australia carry concessions on occupation lists, salary, English and age that regularly turn a hire another firm has called impossible into a straightforward one.
Labour agreements and DAMAsPaula's superb service and experience, her insight into taking the right actions at the right moment, were absolutely crucial to our successful visa applications…
Principal Lawyer
Paula runs the immigration work here, including employer sponsorship from the first application through to accredited status. She has practised immigration law since 2008.
She tells you upfront how a hire will read to the Department, before anything is lodged rather than after.
Bring the role, the salary and the start date. In one call we will tell you whether it works under the standard pathway, whether a labour agreement fits better and what the timeline looks like. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards.
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Thirteen Designated Area Migration Agreements operate across Australia, each with concessions that can turn an impossible hire into a straightforward one. The Pilbara DAMA is built for mining and resources employers in Western Australia.
A Designated Area Migration Agreement is a deal between the Commonwealth and a region or industry body that lets employers in that area sponsor occupations, at salary and age and English concessions, that would not otherwise qualify. Thirteen operate across Australia. The Pilbara DAMA covers mining, resources and the trades and support roles that sit around them and it is one of the most useful and most underused pathways available to Western Australian employers.
Most firms that say a hire is not possible have checked the standard Skills in Demand visa and stopped there. We check the DAMA that applies to your region and industry before we say a hire cannot be done.
Before anything else, we check whether the role and the region actually fit a DAMA and which one. Occupation lists, concessions and requirements differ between agreements, so this is a specific check against the agreement that applies to you, not a general immigration assessment.
Sponsoring under a DAMA starts with a request to become a party to the labour agreement, which sets out the occupations, numbers and terms your business can sponsor under. We prepare the request and the supporting evidence of need.
Once a labour agreement is in place, each nomination and visa still has to be prepared correctly against its specific terms and concessions. We run these the same way as a standard sponsorship: prepared and lodged together, with the fee agreed before we start.
Hospitality · DAMA pathway after two other agents said no
A restaurant group needed to sponsor a head chef in a role that did not sit comfortably on the standard occupation list. Two other migration agents had already told them there was no pathway. We identified a DAMA with an occupation and concession that fitted the role, prepared the nomination and the visa and had it granted within four months.
If someone else has told you there is no pathway, bring us the role, the region and the salary. We will check it against the DAMA that applies before we agree with that answer. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards.
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Trade marks, the portfolio around them and the ownership questions that surface when a business is being sold. Thirty years of global experience on the team.
A mark was used for three years before anyone filed it. The software was written by a contractor whose agreement said nothing about who owns the result. The founder who built the thing left and took the only signed document with them. None of this matters until somebody buys the business, licenses the technology or opposes the mark and then all of it matters at once.
We work on the ordinary version of that problem: registering what should be registered, keeping the record straight and putting the chain of ownership in order before it is tested. Where a matter needs patent attorney work in Australia, we say so and bring in the right person rather than stretching.
Fees are agreed in writing before work starts, as with everything else here.
A trade mark is the one piece of intellectual property most businesses genuinely need and most leave until something goes wrong. We search before you commit to a name, file at IP Australia in the classes that match what you actually sell and answer examination reports rather than forwarding them to you.
A portfolio is a set of deadlines and a set of records and both drift. Renewals get missed after a change of address, ownership records still name a company that was restructured two years ago and nobody notices until a deal or a dispute forces someone to look.
Before anything gets filed there is a commercial question: what is the innovation, who owns it and is registration even the right way to hold it. Some things are better kept confidential. Some are worth protecting in two countries and nowhere else. The answer sets your budget for years, so it is worth an hour at the start.
IP in good order is not just a risk you avoid. It is value a buyer will actually pay for: registered trade marks, a clean chain of title and documented ownership tend to lift what a business is worth, not just protect it. Due diligence is where the difference shows up. A buyer will ask for the assignment from the contractor, the licence that lets you use the font, the document proving the founder transferred what they built before incorporation. Gaps do not usually kill a deal, but they move the price or they end up in an indemnity you carry for years.
The people who make the innovation are the same people the immigration practice sponsors and the two questions are usually asked in the same month. An employment agreement that does not deal with ownership, moral rights and confidentiality creates a problem that surfaces years later and it is worse when the employee is overseas or moving between jurisdictions.
A case turns on a record of achievement and that record tends to exist already: granted patents, a publication list, a citation history, awards and the people prepared to say what the work is worth.
The work is assembling it and mapping it to the criteria the decision maker applies. It is the one place where the intellectual property practice and the immigration practice are doing the same job.
National Innovation VisaDuring COVID when the world was on fire, Paula provided me with amazing assistance to obtain an Australian Permanent Resident visa. Not only that, but it was a National Innovation Visa which I am super proud of receiving… Getting my Visa has been life changing and I am very grateful to Paula for all her assistance.
PhD physicist · UK and European patent attorney
Phil holds a PhD in physics and is a UK and European patent attorney, with more than thirty years in intellectual property. IAM has named him one of the world's leading 300 IP strategists, 2018 to 2026. He leads the intellectual property work here: trade marks and the portfolio around them, strategy and the ownership questions that surface when a business is being sold.
He also advises on the National Innovation Visa, where the record of achievement sits in a portfolio, a publication list and a citation history. He came through that system himself: invited by the Australian Government to apply for a Global Talent visa, which was granted.
If you already hold registrations, the first call is usually a look across the portfolio: what is registered, what is renewed, who owns it on paper and where the gaps are. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards. If a matter needs real work on the call itself, we will tell you and offer a paid session instead.
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Family matters that cross a border, coordinated as one matter with a firm in the United Kingdom rather than two matters running in parallel.
A family matter that crosses a border is usually run as two matters: a lawyer here, a lawyer there and a client in the middle translating between them. It is slower, it costs more and the two halves can end up pulling against each other.
Because we work closely with a firm in the United Kingdom, the same people can hold the whole picture. Where a third country is involved we say so and bring in a lawyer there rather than guessing at their law.
This work is often urgent and always personal. Before anything is lodged we will tell you whether the matter can succeed and fees are agreed in writing before work starts.
A partner visa is decided on evidence of a relationship and the evidence people keep is rarely the evidence the Department wants. We tell you at the start what the file needs, onshore or offshore and what the sponsor is agreeing to.
When a couple has lived in two countries the first question is which country decides and the answer can change the outcome more than any argument made afterwards. Property, superannuation and overseas pensions each behave differently across a border.
An international surrogacy arrangement raises parentage in one country and citizenship in another and the two do not automatically agree. The order in which steps are taken matters and some of it cannot be corrected afterwards.
An adoption completed overseas is not automatically an adoption Australia recognises and recognition drives everything that follows: citizenship, a passport, a visa and the child's status here.
Where a child has been taken to or kept in another country, the 1980 Hague Convention sets a return process that runs on a short timetable. What happens in the first weeks shapes what is possible later.
Relocation, travel and schooling become legal questions the moment two countries are involved. Most of it is manageable if it is dealt with before someone books a flight.
An Australian practice, dual-qualified in Australia and the United Kingdom, working with a trusted firm there, so a divorce, a property settlement or a child's citizenship does not have to be run twice, at twice the cost, by people who have never spoken.
Where a partner visa and a family matter are running at the same time, which is common, they are handled together rather than tripping over each other.
Partner visasPrincipal Lawyer
Paula founded the practice and is qualified to practise law in Australia and the UK. Working closely with a firm in the United Kingdom is what allows a family matter spanning two jurisdictions to be handled here as one matter rather than two and it is why the partner visa and the family law side of a separation can be run by the same person.
She has practised law across jurisdictions for nearly twenty years and is the one who says upfront which country should decide a matter before anything is filed in either.
The first call is a look at where the matter actually sits: which country decides, what the timetable is and what has to happen first. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards. If a matter needs real work on the call itself, we will tell you and offer a paid session instead.
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Email reaches a lawyer rather than an inbox nobody owns. If you would rather talk it through, book a call and the person who would run the matter is the one who answers.
General enquiries
Anything that is not already with one of us. It is read every working day and sent to whoever should answer it.
Straight to a lawyer
paula@iniciolegal.com.au for immigration and cross-border family. phil@iniciolegal.com.au for intellectual property and the National Innovation Visa.
None of this is required and nothing is lost by sending two lines instead. It simply means the first reply can be an answer rather than a list of questions.
Across Australia and overseas. Immigration is federal, so employers sponsor from anywhere in Australia.
Calls are booked rather than taken, so the lawyer who runs your matter is the one who answers.
Book a callInicio Legal is a Victoria based legal practice working across Australia. Principal Lawyer: Paula McGeown. ABN 21 875 126 166.
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Fees are agreed in writing before work starts.
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Who regulates us, what work costs, what happens if something goes wrong and what we do with your information. Written to be read rather than to be complied with.
Who regulates us and where.
Inicio Legal is an Australian legal practice based in Victoria. Paula McGeown is the Principal Lawyer and holds an Australian practising certificate. The practice and its principal appear on the public register kept by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner.
Before we are engaged we tell you who will do the work and what they are registered to do. Where a matter needs a registered Australian patent or trade marks attorney or a lawyer in a jurisdiction we do not hold a practising certificate in, we say so and bring in the right person rather than stretching.
You will know the cost before the work starts.
Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law we give you a costs disclosure before we begin, in writing, setting out what the work involves, what it will cost or our best estimate of it and how and when you will be billed. For most matters we quote a fixed fee instead and the figure is written into the engagement letter rather than left to be inferred.
If an estimate needs to change we tell you before it changes, not afterwards. Official fees and disbursements are shown separately from our own fees and any commission, rebate or referral benefit connected with your matter is disclosed.
If something goes wrong.
Raise it first with the person handling your matter. If that does not resolve it, ask in writing for the complaint to go to the Principal Lawyer at paula@iniciolegal.com.au. We acknowledge complaints within five working days and give a final written response within thirty days.
If you are still not satisfied, a complaint about legal services or costs may be made to the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, who handle both consumer matters and disciplinary complaints. They can be reached on 1300 796 344 or through lsbc.vic.gov.au. Nobody is disadvantaged for complaining and we will provide this procedure in another format on request.
What this site collects and what we hold.
This website sets no cookies of its own and stores nothing about your visit. Where a measurement tag is in use it is named here before it is switched on.
Client and matter information is handled under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, and, where a matter touches the United Kingdom, under the UK GDPR. Our full privacy notice is issued with the engagement documents and provided on request.
Issued before the work starts.
Our terms accompany every engagement letter and are accepted before chargeable work begins. They set out scope, fees and billing, conflicts, confidentiality, ownership of documents, retention, liability and termination.
Conflicts are cleared before we take instructions. Where we hold confidential information from another client that bears on your matter, we will decline rather than rely on an information barrier we cannot honestly maintain at this size.
Where the IP work is regulated.
Dr Phil Jeffrey is a United Kingdom and European patent attorney, regulated in the United Kingdom by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board under registration number 2239. United Kingdom and European patent attorney work is carried out under that registration.
Australian trade mark filings and portfolio work are handled by the practice. Where a matter requires a registered Australian patent attorney we say so at the outset and bring one in. We do not hold ourselves out as registered Australian patent attorneys.
How we decide what to take.
We do not offer, give, request or accept a bribe or any improper payment, in any jurisdiction, in either direction and we do not make facilitation payments. Referral arrangements are disclosed to the client they affect.
Advice is independent of what it earns us. If we think a matter will fail we say so and do not lodge it and if a cheaper route exists we tell you about it even where it means less work for us.
Using this site.
This site is built to work with a keyboard alone, keeps a visible focus state on every control and respects a reduced motion setting by holding its animations still.
If any part of this site or any document we send you is difficult to use, tell us and we will provide it in another format. Say what would help rather than what is wrong and we will work to that.
Inicio Legal is a Victorian legal practice, acting for employers and individuals across Australia and overseas. Principal Lawyer: Paula McGeown. ABN 21 875 126 166.
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
Information on this website is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Always obtain advice for your own circumstances.
Victorian Legal Services Board register: search the register · Paula McGeown's listing
Contactinicio
Most people start here
Thirty minutes with the lawyer who would run your matter, at no cost. Tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you honestly whether it is likely to work, roughly what it would cost and what the timeline looks like. Where a matter needs both an immigration lawyer and a patent attorney in the room, the call runs to forty five minutes with Paula and Phil together.
Advice on your own application
Forty five minutes at $295, for advice rather than representation. Book this one if you are weighing up your options or preparing an application yourself and want a lawyer to look over it before it goes in. You leave with a view on whether it will work and what to do next.
The free call is for matters we are well placed to help with outright. Pick the option that fits and we will take you straight to the right next step.
If none of these describes your matter, email enquiries@iniciolegal.com.au and we will point you to the right person, here or elsewhere.
Free, thirty minutes, with Paula
Free, thirty minutes, with Paula
A partner visa is decided on evidence of the relationship, so the first call is largely about what you already have and what the file still needs. Onshore or offshore, the answer is different and it is worth knowing which one applies before anything is lodged.
Free, thirty minutes, with Paula
Cross-border family matters are booked through the same calendar. Say in the booking notes which countries are involved and whether any dates are already fixed.
Free, thirty minutes, with Phil
Free, forty five minutes, with Paula and Phil
A case that turns on a record of achievement needs the immigration lawyer and the patent attorney in the same conversation, so this one is booked with both of us.
$295, forty five minutes
The free call is for matters we would go on to run ourselves, so it stays genuinely free for the people it is built for. If you are weighing up your options or preparing your own application, this is the session that helps. You leave with a view on whether it will work and what to do next.
You will speak directly with Paula or Phil, not a junior or a paralegal. Fees are agreed in writing before any work starts, so there is no surprise invoice after the call. If we think another firm or another kind of adviser is a better fit for what you need, we will tell you that too.
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Thirteen Designated Area Migration Agreements currently operate across Australia. Each covers a different region or state, with its own occupation list and concessions.
Designated Area Migration Agreements are agreed region by region, so the list of thirteen below reflects what is currently in place under the Department of Home Affairs program and can change as agreements are renewed or new ones added. We check the current agreement and its occupation list before we tell a client whether a role fits.
Our own deepest experience is with the Pilbara DAMA for Western Australian mining and resources employers. We regularly check the other twelve against a client's role, region and industry.
Western Australia. Built for mining and resources employers and the trades and support roles that sit around them. The DAMA we work with most.
Western Australia. A broader, state-wide agreement alongside the Pilbara and South West DAMAs, for employers outside those specific regions.
Western Australia. Covers the South West region, separately from the Pilbara and state-wide agreements.
Western Australia. Covers the Goldfields region, with its own occupation list and concessions.
Western Australia. A regional agreement for the East Kimberley area.
Northern Territory. A territory-wide agreement.
South Australia. Covers regional South Australia outside Adelaide.
South Australia. A metropolitan agreement aimed at technology and innovation employers in Adelaide.
New South Wales. Covers the Orana region.
Victoria. Covers the Goulburn Valley region.
Victoria. Covers the Great South Coast region.
Queensland. Covers the Far North Queensland region.
Queensland. Covers the Townsville region.
This list reflects the current Department of Home Affairs DAMA program, checked against the official source before publishing. Confirm directly with us or the Department before relying on it for a specific hire, since agreements are added, renewed and occasionally retired.
No. A DAMA sits alongside the standard pathway and only helps where the standard occupation list, salary or age settings do not fit. We check both before recommending either.
It depends on where the role is based and, in some cases, the industry it is in. Bring us the role, the region and the salary and we will check it against the agreement that actually covers you.
Yes. Each agreement sets its own concessions on occupation lists, salary, English and age, which is what lets a DAMA succeed where the standard pathway does not.
Then a DAMA is unlikely to help and another pathway, such as the standard Skills in Demand visa, is the right place to start. We will tell you that directly rather than searching for a fit that is not there.
If someone else has told you there is no pathway, we will check it against the DAMA that applies before we agree with that answer. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards.
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Two different thresholds, indexed every year. Neither one is the number people remember from last year's hire.
The Skills in Demand visa sets a minimum salary a sponsored employee must be paid. That figure is updated every year on 1 July, based on wage growth across the economy. A number published today is close to certainly wrong by the time a role is advertised next year, so rather than print one here we check the current published figure on the official visa listing against every offer before we advise on a hire.
The Core Skills stream and the Specialist Skills stream are held to different thresholds. The Specialist Skills figure sits well above the Core Skills one. The regional Skilled Employer Sponsored visa, subclass 494, is aligned to the Core Skills figure.
Core Skills and Specialist Skills are assessed against different occupation lists and different thresholds. We work out which stream a role genuinely fits before either number matters.
Base salary is what generally counts toward the threshold. Non-monetary benefits are treated differently, so a package that looks right on paper can still fall short of what the visa requires.
The threshold is indexed to wage growth across the economy and updates every 1 July, applying to any nomination lodged on or after that date. We check the figure current at lodgement rather than the one from when a role was first discussed.
The subclass 494 regional visa is set to the Core Skills figure, so a role that clears the Core Skills threshold generally clears the regional one too.
It changes every 1 July and differs between the Core Skills and Specialist Skills streams, so we check the current published figure against every offer rather than quoting last year's number.
Generally no. The threshold is assessed against base earnings, so a package built around superannuation, bonuses or other benefits needs a closer look before we can say it clears the line.
The standard pathway will not work as proposed. We look at whether the role, the salary or the occupation classification can genuinely change or whether a labour agreement fits better.
Yes. The figure current at the time of lodgement applies, so a renewal is checked against the current threshold, not the one that applied when the visa was first granted.
We tell you at the first call whether a salary clears the current threshold and what stream a role fits. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards.
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For people whose record of achievement already exists in some form: granted patents, a publication list, a citation history, awards. One team handling both the immigration and the intellectual property sides.
A case for the National Innovation Visa turns on a record of achievement and that record tends to exist already: granted patents, a publication list, a citation history, awards and the people prepared to say what the work is worth. The visa prioritises fields the government has identified as nationally significant, so where a case sits against those priorities is one of the first things we check.
The work is assembling that record and mapping it to the criteria the decision maker applies. It is the one place where our intellectual property practice and our immigration practice are doing the same job, rather than handing a file between two firms that have never spoken.
Before anything is prepared, we look honestly at whether the record of achievement is strong enough to proceed and tell you where it falls short rather than filing a weak case and hoping.
Achievement, recognition and impact, gathered and organised against the criteria a decision maker actually applies rather than presented as a loose collection of certificates and citations.
Prepared and lodged as one coordinated application, with the evidence built to answer the specific criteria the case needs to meet.
Where the record includes patents, registered designs or other IP rights, the same practice that manages that portfolio builds the visa case, rather than the two questions being handled by people who have never spoken.
During COVID when the world was on fire, Paula provided me with amazing assistance to obtain an Australian Permanent Resident visa. Not only that, but it was a National Innovation Visa which I am super proud of receiving… Getting my Visa has been life changing and I am very grateful to Paula for all her assistance.
People with a genuine record of achievement in a field the government has identified as a national priority, evidenced through things like patents, publications, citations or awards rather than a plan for future work.
It depends on the field, but a case is generally built from existing achievement: granted patents, a publication list, a citation history, awards and people prepared to say what the work is worth. We assess what already exists before we say what is missing.
Where a case includes patents or other registered rights, the same practice that manages that portfolio also builds the visa case, so the two questions are handled together rather than separately.
The visa prioritises certain fields the government has identified as nationally significant and those priorities can change. We check where a case sits against the current priorities before advising on it.
If you already hold patents, publications or recognition in your field, the first call is usually a look across the portfolio: what is registered, what the evidence shows and where the gaps are. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign afterwards.