LawyerAbroad

Email from the Dept of Home Affairs

Granted 189 PR Visa: 06/09/18 First entry on 189 Visa: 17/03/19 Applied for Citizenship: 21/03/23 Invitation to Test Email Received: 25/05/23 Test Date (re-booked): 31/05/23 Approved: 19/06/23 RR Visa Applied & Granted: 06/07/23 Invitation to Ceremony Email Received: 09/08/23 Ceremony Date (Yarra City): 17/09/23

Being invited to apply as a Barrister and being invited to apply as a Solicitor are two identical routes by two different names. They both have the same skills assessment requirement, which is admission as a lawyer in Australia. Both occupations are WELL within their occupation ceilings. So your main concern should be maxing your number of points to be invited not which occupation to apply under. 2711 Barristers 1,000 <5 2713 Solicitors 4,650 27 Hope that helps, good luck.

Please see my previous answer. I used that information to establish I worked as a self-employed lawyer.

I did this by sending: 10 years' worth of electronic professional diary; 10 years' worth of insurance certificates; tax returns; and statutory declarations by colleagues confirming my experience.

Hi Zami, My background is as a barrister. I applied for my 189 visa as a Barrister and I was only as a lawyer admitted to the SC of NSW. I did not need to apply for or be admitted as a barrister in Australia to apply for a 189 as a Barrister. Your admission certificate does the job of a skills assessment, which is why you don't need a letter. Good luck

My only experience is of NSW. I chose NSW because it appeared a very efficient online application process. It was pretty straight forwards. Admission in one state will be sufficient to secure recognition in other States and Territories.

Hi, to get a positive skills assessment as a solicitor or barrister your husband would need to be admitted as an Australian lawyer. That means going through the rigmarole of your husband having his legal qualifications compared to the legal qualifications that are required for admission to the Australian legal profession. It's certainly a costly and long process for getting those few extra points! I don't think being a lawyer in a non-English speaking country is a bar to cross-qualifying. However, he may find that coming from a non-common law jurisdiction (such as France) means he has to study more subjects than a person who is a lawyer in a common law jurisdiction. The documents required to cross-qualify are set out on the Legal Admissions Board website. Your husband would need to choose which jurisdiction in Australia he wants admitting to and take it from there. I hope that helps and good luck.

Hi Daniel, You need to submit your qualifications to a State Legal Admissions Board. It will assess how closely related your existing academic qualifications and practical skills are to what are required of lawyers/law students in Australia. It will specify the additional subjects you need to study and it is likely you will be required to complete further study. You do not need to study to get your qualifications assessed, that is a formality conducted by the SLAB. However, you will need to study to become admitted as a lawyer. It is only by being admitted as a lawyer that you will be able to demonstrate an occupation on the list. If you do not become admitted as a lawyer in Australia then you cannot apply for a 189/190 visa using Solicitor/Barrister as your specified occupation. You do not need to obtain a separate skills assessment. Your Australian lawyer admission certificate is accepted in lieu of a skills assessment. Good luck

Just be sure to forensically set out everything you have done that is relevant to each component of the skills / knowledge required and explain why it is relevant. I don't think you can be criticised for too much information. I sent a lever arch of evidence!

Glad you have found it useful. Good luck with the process.

Great news. Congrats on getting your assessment. An important stage of the process completed!

It's outside of my experience to advise you on appropriate visas for your particular circumstances. From my own enquiries, I did not find any Australian institution that ran both PLT and academic subjects. In my experience, they must be studied at two separate institutions, although I will defer to anyone else who has better experience than my own.

I studied the academic subjects through the University of New England. Again, all remote learning from the UK. Online lectures and tutorials. I sat the exams at a venue in the UK. You may find this thread I set up helpful:

I studied the PLT subjects through the College of Law in Australia from the UK (remote learning). You submit coursework online and oral assessment takes place via a platform similar to Skype. You don't need to do it in Australia.