In response to client feedback and to provide greater enhancements for our clients practising in immigration law, we have included immigration specific legal rates – specifically, fees for temporary and permanent visas.
For ease of use, these fees can be found within the Legal Rates section in Menu > Others > Legal Rates – FED:
We have added the list of fees to 2 new tabs Temporary Visas and Permanent Visas as follows: [Read more…]
We are pleased to advise that in response to client feedback we have added an additional AAT Form as follows:
These forms were reviewed and the following updated:
The following form has been updated in accordance with the Federal Circuit Court:
In alignment with the commencement of the new Sponsored Parent (Temporary) Class GH, Subclass 870 visa, this new class and subclass has been added to the drop-down list for Current Visa class and Current Visa subclass within the Passport & Visa layout.
*The Department of Home Affairs have announced that applications to sponsor a parent for a Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa will be open from 17 April 2019. Once a sponsorship application has been approved, a sponsored parent will be able to apply for a Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa. Applications for the visa will open from 1 July 2019.
The Immigration Law matters in LEAP currently display the Primary applicant’s (and Secondary applicant) current visa (as entered in this Passport & Visa layout) in the matter view. For more details on how to make the most of immigration law matters in LEAP, please refer to the corresponding information sheet on the LEAP Community page – How to complete an Immigration law matter. There is also corresponding commentary on the new Sponsored Parent (Temporary) in the By Lawyers immigration guide.
The Skills table is now included as a default table in the immigration, visa, merits review and judicial review matter types.
Within the Skills table layout, clients have to option to record details of the Primary Visa Applicant’s (and if applicable, the Applicant’s Spouse’s) nominated occupation and corresponding ANZSCO code.
The Skills table layout also contains the relevant factors that contribute to a skilled visa applicant’s points under Schedule 6D of the Migration Regulations 1994 including:
Once the relevant number of points are entered into the applicable fields for the qualifications, the sum of applicable points will be tallied up in the Total Points field at the bottom.
These points will also display in the matter view.
Further details on how to complete immigration matter types in LEAP can be found here.
Following client feedback, the Content team have added Bridging Visa Granted to the suite of Critical Dates within the relevant immigration matter types (immigration, judicial review, merits review, ministerial intervention).
This complements the existing Critical Dates, Bridging Visa Application Date and Bridging Visa Expiry Date, contained within the immigration, visa, merits review and judicial review matter types.
To utilise these dates for the workflow of your matters, you can create “Recurring Task” templates or “Due Date Tasks” based on the critical dates entered within your matter (which integrate with Outlook). See LEAP Communities to create Recurring Task templates across your Immigration matter types so that these are created once and used on multiple matters.
See LEAP Communities to also create Due Date Tasks. Within the Task created, you can also:
Tasks created will appear in the Tasks List of the matter and will be crossed/grayed out when you mark them as Complete. You will also receive ‘Task Due Notifications’ in your matter lists. These notifications are hyperlinks, therefore, you can click on them and you will be taken directly to the Task itself in the matter.
For more articles regarding Calendar & Tasks see LEAP Communities.
NOTE: If you would like the new critical dates to appear in your “existing” matters, you will need to change the matter type to a different matter type, save, and then change back again to the correct matter type, this will “refresh” the critical date scheme.
To assist clients in utilising the most out of the immigration matter types in LEAP, we have created an information sheet on How to complete an Immigration Law matter (accessible via the LEAP Community page).
The information sheet delves into the various immigration law matter types including:
Details of the main tables types and critical dates within these matter types have also been outlined in this information sheet.
For information sheets for how to complete other matter types, please visit the LEAP Community page.
Legal practitioners practising in immigration law will soon be potentially relieved of the dual regulations/registrations (firstly by their relevant legal practising board, and secondly by the Migration Agents Regulatory Authority (MARA)).
The proposed changes are covered in more detail in By Lawyers’ recent post on the Obiter blog – Immigration work to become easier for lawyers.
It if foreseeable that these changes for a single form of registration/regulation will make it less challenging for lawyers to practise in immigration law, a complex area in itself.
The immigration matter types in LEAP have been rewritten to assist practitioners in better managing matters of this kind and the By Lawyers Immigration guide provide in depth commentary for practitioners across the various visa subclasses and appeal types.
The following NEW Administrative Appeals Tribunal – MR Division forms have been added to our Immigration Law Matter types:
The forms are included in each of the LEAP Forms folders for all six new Immigration Law Matter types:
