ADL LawyersTwo routes to a life here.
Both run on the same clock.
Skilled migration and student visas are the two most common ways people start their life in Australia — and the two most commonly refused. One turns on a points score you can influence more than you think. The other turns on a case officer’s reading of why you’re really coming. We handle both, including the refusals that follow.
The subclass numbers are the map, not the decoration
If you already know your subclass, start there. If you don’t, the difference between these streams is usually who nominates you and where you live — not how good your case is.
Points-tested skilled migration
Three pathways to permanent or provisional residence based on what you do for a living. The same applicant can score very differently across them, because state and regional nomination add points and open occupations that are closed federally.
Who this suits
- Subclass 189 — permanent residence with no sponsor and no state tie. Highest cut-offs of the three.
- Subclass 190 — state or territory nomination adds 5 points and comes with a commitment to live there.
- Subclass 491 — regional nomination adds 15 points, runs 5 years provisionally, and transitions to permanent residence via subclass 191.
- Your occupation appears on at least one skilled occupation list — federal, state or regional.
- You are under 45 at the date of invitation and hold at least Competent English.
What we do on these matters
- Full points audit before you spend anything on tests or assessments — including partner points and community language.
- Skills assessment strategy: which assessing authority, which occupation code, and what your evidence has to show.
- EOI drafting and lodgement, with the claims framed so they survive scrutiny at invitation.
- State and regional nomination applications, matched to the streams your occupation actually sits in.
- Refusals and cancellations taken to the Administrative Review Tribunal.
A skills assessment against the wrong ANZSCO code is not a small correction — it usually means starting the assessment again, months later, at full cost.
Points claimed for work experience or qualifications that the evidence doesn’t carry are the most common cause of refusal after invitation. The EOI is a set of claims you must be able to prove.
State and regional nominations carry residence and employment commitments. Breaching them can affect the permanent stage that follows.
We score your profile across all three pathways and tell you which one is realistically reachable.
Correct occupation code, correct assessing authority, evidence assembled to their standard.
Lodgement with claims documented, plus state or regional nomination where it improves your position.
Full application within the invitation window, with health, character and dependants handled.
Student visas and post-study work rights
The student visa is assessed on whether a case officer believes you are genuinely coming to study. Since March 2024 that assessment runs under the Genuine Student requirement, which asks a different question than the old GTE test and expects different evidence.
Who this suits
- Subclass 500 — study at a registered course provider, with a Confirmation of Enrolment.
- Subclass 485 — post-study work rights after completing an eligible qualification in Australia.
- You can show genuine intent, financial capacity for tuition, travel and living costs, and health cover for your full stay.
- You hold the English level your provider and the visa require.
- Applicants already onshore changing course, changing provider, or facing a condition breach.
What we do on these matters
- Genuine Student statements built around your actual circumstances — study history, ties at home, and how the course fits your career.
- Course and provider selection reviewed against post-study work rights and any future skills assessment.
- Condition breaches (work hours, attendance, course progress) handled before they become a cancellation.
- Section 20 notices and provider reporting responded to properly and on time.
- Student visa refusals and cancellations taken to the Tribunal.
Templated statements are the single most reliable way to get refused. Case officers read hundreds a week and the pattern is obvious.
Funds that appear shortly before lodgement, or that can’t be traced to a credible source, are treated as unreliable rather than sufficient.
Repeated provider or course changes need explaining in the application. Left unexplained, they read as a visa strategy rather than a study plan.
We look at your study history, previous refusals and circumstances at home before anything is lodged.
Financial documents, enrolment, health cover and a Genuine Student statement written to your facts.
Application submitted with the full evidence set, not the minimum checklist.
Condition compliance, course changes and the 485 planned before your course ends, not after.
Most people arrive at a consultation assuming one pathway and leave on a different one. The points audit takes thirty minutes and costs less than a wrong skills assessment.
Awrangajeb Habib Raj
Awrangajeb practises exclusively in immigration law and takes skilled and student matters from first assessment through to decision — including the tribunal appeals that follow a refusal. The person who scores your profile is the person who argues your case.
Skilled and student clients
I'd been stuck at 65 points for two years. They mapped out a state nomination route I didn't know existed and I had my invitation within the year.
My student visa was cancelled and I had almost no time left. They filed the tribunal application within days and walked me through every step of the hearing.
My skills assessment had been done against the wrong code by someone else. They caught it before I lodged and saved me from a refusal I would have paid for twice.
Skilled and student questions we answer most
Can't see your question? A 30-minute consultation costs less than a wrong lodgement.
Book a consultationIs 65 points enough to get invited?
My occupation isn’t on the skilled list. Is that the end of it?
What actually changed when GTE became the Genuine Student requirement?
Can I change my course or provider on a student visa?
My student visa was refused. Can I appeal?
Do partner points and community language actually matter?
Other matters we handle
Partner & Family Visas
Partner, parent, child and remaining relative applications — onshore and offshore, with the relationship evidence strategy that decides them.
Employer Sponsored Visas
Sponsored work visas that don’t rely on a points score, including regional streams with broader occupation access.
Appeals & Judicial Review
Tribunal review, Ministerial Intervention, character matters under s501 and judicial review in the Federal Circuit and Family Court.
Get your points scored before you spend on tests
Consultations run 30 minutes, in person in Sydney, by phone or over video. Bring your qualifications, any skills assessment, your English test result and — if you’ve been refused before — the decision record. The deadline is usually printed on it.
- You speak with the principal lawyer, not an intake team
- You leave knowing your deadline and your options
- Fixed-fee quote before any work begins
- Bengali, Hindi and Urdu spoken
Live availability, timezone detection and automatic confirmation emails — handled by your existing GHL booking calendar.
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