Australian Presence Legal set to launch migration strategic advisory services in Sri Lanka

Australian Presence Legal (APL), an established full-service commercial and immigration law firm based in the central business district of Sydney, Australia, is set to continue the expansion of its consultancy services to provide face to face consultations in Sri Lanka, to meet the growing need for skilled migrants in Australia. These advisory services will be available in January 2019 for Sri Lankans interested in relocating to Australia.

Australian Presence Legal Director Tamsin Johnston with Consul General of Sri Lanka in Sydney Lal Wickrematunge

Australian Presence Legal Director Maya Nanayakkara

Australian Presence Legal Chief Operating Officer Shanil Nanayakkara

Australian Presence Legal Chief Financial Officer Tegan Arnold

As a top migration destination of choice, Australia has received tens of thousands of visa applications in 2017 alone. Owing to the complexities of the laws and procedures surrounding Australian migration, a significant proportion of these applications are requisitioned, or refused. 

Having successfully delivered face-to-face consultancy services in South Africa in November, APL is seeking to include Sri Lanka in its expanding global footprint in early January 2019. By doing so, APL intends to provide both individuals and companies in Sri Lanka with access to experienced Australian lawyers who have a strong commitment to providing independent and trusted legal advice.

Australian Presence Legal is headed by Managing Director Maya Nanayakkara, who has a distinguished legal career spanning over 40 years, having practiced law in both Sri Lanka and Australia. Maya has provided advice to both government and private sectors, and has served as legal counsel to a sitting Prime Minister. 

Leading the team delivering migration advice in Sri Lanka, is Tamsin Johnston. Tamsin is a senior lawyer, licensed to practice law in both Australia and South Africa, and is additionally an Australian Registered Migration Agent and a Director of APL. Tamsin is primarily responsible for the commercial, employment and immigration divisions within the firm. With a strong background in litigation as well as commercial and insurance law, Tamsin is also a uniquely experienced immigration lawyer in Australia, having previously held a critical position overseeing the nationwide delivery of immigration services under Australian Government contracts. This exceptional background places Tamsin in an excellent position to advise and assist new applicants from Sri Lanka.

What sets APL apart from some other agencies providing migration services locally, is that its services are built on a team of established immigration lawyers, and not just migration agents. Lawyers are regulated not just by the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA), but are also regulated and held to a very high standard by the Law Society. 

APL currently represents an admirable clientele of government departments, multinational companies, as well as successful stock exchange-listed businesses in the commercial and immigration space, all of whom require high calibre legal counsel.

“Given the Sri Lankan background of our Managing Director, Maya, we are particularly excited to be ‘coming back home’,” said Tamsin Johnston from her Sydney office. “The Sri Lankan diaspora is widely recognised as having made major contributions to Australia socially, culturally and economically, and has enriched the constantly developing Australian experience. We in turn understand that migration to Australia is extremely appealing to Sri Lankans, and we are certain that our legal team has the professional capacity and expertise to smoothen and add credibility to an otherwise daunting process.”

As a result-oriented firm, APL is not merely a form-filling service that simply lodges applications. Instead, its lawyers diligently prepare detailed submissions with ‘front-end loaded’ applications, and directly address all regulations and requirements at the very outset, meaning that all applications prepared and lodged by APL are already decision-ready. Unlike other less intensive and less detail-oriented approaches, APL’s client-centric formula places its clients in a far stronger position to achieve a positive outcome.

Furthermore, APL also specialises in challenging negative decisions received from immigration. Currently representing clients on contentious immigration matters at the Immigration Assessment Authority, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Federal Circuit Court, the Federal Court, and the High Court of Australia, the firm also assists clients with contentious protection visa applications at the UNHCR, meaning that APL’s team of immigration lawyers have experience at every single available review authority.

In addition to its immigration practice, APL also provides strategic advice to both private and commercial sectors in many other areas of the law, namely with regards to property, wills and estates, employment disputes, and even in the establishment of businesses in Australia. The firm also plans to offer some of these services to Sri Lanka over the coming year.

Tamsin was recently invited to meet with the Consul General, Lal Wickrematunge and Corporate Consul, M.M. Abdul Raheem, at the Sri Lankan Consulate in Sydney. At the meeting Tamsin discussed how APL has the capacity to meet the commercial legal needs of successful Sri Lankan businesses or Sri Lankan investors who trade with Australia, and how the organisation can offer timely and personalised advice with which to set up an Australian incorporated company.

Aspiring Sri Lankan migrants hoping to have their eligibility assessed face-to-face by APL’s legal team should email their CVs to [email protected] before the end of the year. A free preliminary assessment will follow to determine whether applicants qualify for the formal assessment in Sri Lanka come January – a step in the right direction towards a life-altering move to Australia.