Family and immigration matters
A decision about travel, a child’s documents or where to start proceedings can have consequences beyond the immediate question. We consider the countries involved, the existing arrangements and any deadlines before advising on the next steps.
Where advice or representation in another jurisdiction is needed, that involvement must be coordinated with the Australian matter. Qualifications in one country do not replace the need for the appropriate authority to practise in another.
Partner visas
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.
- Onshore partner visas, subclasses 820 and 801
- Offshore partner visas, subclasses 309 and 100
- Prospective marriage, subclass 300
- Relationship evidence gathered properly rather than late
- Sponsorship, including where there is a history to disclose
International divorce and property
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.
- Which jurisdiction should hear the matter, and the cost of getting it wrong
- Property settlements where assets sit in more than one country
- Superannuation and overseas pension arrangements
- Recognition and enforcement of overseas orders
- Coordination where more than one jurisdiction is involved
Surrogacy and citizenship by descent
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.
- Australian citizenship by descent for a child born overseas
- Parentage, and the documents each authority will accept
- International surrogacy arrangements and their limits
- Travel documents for a child not yet recognised
International adoption
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.
- Whether the adoption is recognised in Australia, and on what basis
- Citizenship or the adoption visa route, whichever actually fits
- Hague intercountry adoption and bilateral arrangements
- Documents, translations and the order they are needed in
Hague Convention matters
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.
- Applications for return, and responding to one
- Convention defences, and how they are actually run
- Working with the Central Authority in each country
- Urgent applications where a departure is imminent
Children across borders
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.
- Relocation, proposed and opposed
- Consent to travel, and what to do when it is refused
- Passports and airport watch list applications
- Parenting arrangements that have to work in two countries
- Visa consequences of a change in parenting arrangements
Official information
Read the current government guidance alongside advice for your circumstances.