How Do We Charge?

If you’re on a budget, we have junior lawyers with lower rates. If you’re looking for free legal advice, some of our lawyers are open to pro bono cases (edit: we are not at capacity to offer pro bono at the moment). Some lawyers are book-smart, while others are street-smart. 

The younger lawyers tend to be very fast & responsive, but a handful are slow (although they beg to differ, that slow & steady wins the race).

The older lawyers are usually more attentive and have a reputation for good customer relations. But if money is no object, you can engage a bunch of them or all of them. The beautiful part is that if you find that your immigration lawyer does not meet your expectations, you have the option of changing immigration lawyers with a different team, without having to completely change law firms, where they’d charge a significant amount as part of the initial fact-finding and preliminary advice.

As a point of reference, depending on the complexity of your case and the immigration lawyer or lawyers you choose, you’re looking at approximately $1,000 to $10,000 + GST. Once we have assessed your situation more thoroughly and you’ve decided on the pathways we’ve laid out for you, we’ll provide you with an accurate quote and breakdown of fees.

AHC Lawyers Current Hourly Rates

Most of our commonly requested immigration services are offered on a fixed-fee or package basis. This gives clients greater certainty about professional fees before work begins. There are, however, some matters where a fixed fee is not appropriate or practical. In those cases, our professional fees may be charged on a time basis based on our hourly rates.

Time-based charging may apply where the work is unusual, urgent, complex, open-ended, outside the original agreed scope, or more accurately charged by reference to the actual time required. Examples include:

• seeking costs after a successful judicial review matter;

• additional work requested after a fixed-fee engagement has already been agreed, such as further drafting, templates, statements, written advice or other discrete work not covered by the original Costs Agreement;

• complex matters where the work required cannot be properly assessed at the outset;

• early termination of an engagement, where a block of agreed work has not been completed, and fees must be calculated by reference to the work actually performed;

• written advice following a Migration Planning Session;

• urgent review, drafting or strategy work where the better approach is to itemise the work by time spent; and

• any other matter where the scope, volume or nature of the work makes fixed-fee pricing unsuitable.

Where time-based charging applies, the applicable hourly rates will depend on the seniority and role of each person working on the matter. If more than one lawyer, migration agent, paralegal or support staff member works on your matter, each person’s time may be charged at their applicable rate.

Time-based work is usually recorded in units of time and may include work such as reviewing documents, considering evidence, legal research, drafting correspondence, preparing written advice, preparing submissions, conferences, telephone calls, emails, supervision, internal strategy discussions, and file management.

Where possible, we will give you an estimate before commencing time-based work. Any estimate is not a cap unless expressly agreed in writing.

An Idea of our Professional Fees

To provide a rough idea of how much we charge, below is a summary table of popular services. The price indicated is reflective on a average fee. Our prices vary depending on:

• amount of time required to prepare

• the level of service you require

• additional complexity in your circumstances

• experience and qualification of the legal practitioner you choose

An increment of approximately $500 per application can be expected when you choose different level of seniority. The above prices are indicative of a Junior Associate which progresses to:

• Associate

• Senior Associate

• Practice Group Leader

• Accredited Specialist

Sample of our Packages

NB: The following packages are specifically for Partner Visa; ranging from straightforward applications to highly complex partner visas. It may also serve as a guide for other types of visa applications.

Pay-Assist

PAY BY INSTALMENTS

Subject to eligibility, you can enter into an arrangement to on a weekly basis. You will need to be lawfully employed in Australia.