Migration Lawyers Brisbane

How does migration law work in Queensland?

Migration law is federal. The Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994 apply in Brisbane exactly as they do everywhere else in Australia, and visa decisions are made by the Department of Home Affairs, not by the Queensland Government. There is no Queensland visa and no Queensland court that can grant one.

What is different in Queensland is the layer that sits around the federal system. The Queensland Government runs its own nomination program for two skilled visas through an agency called Migration Queensland, with its own pathways and registration process. The Administrative Review Tribunal, which reviews visa refusals and cancellations, has a Brisbane Registry on Ann Street, and court challenges are filed in the federal courts on North Quay. Queensland solicitors who give immigration assistance are regulated under a Queensland statute, the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld).

So if you live in Fortitude Valley, New Farm, Newstead, Spring Hill, West End or elsewhere in inner Brisbane, the rules are national but the places and programs you deal with are local.

Queensland state nomination for the subclass 190 and 491 visas

State nomination means a state government formally supports your skilled visa application. Migration Queensland, the Queensland Government agency responsible for skilled and business visa nomination, nominates for two skilled visas: the Skilled Nominated (Permanent) visa (subclass 190) and the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491).

It publishes separate pathways for skilled workers living in Queensland, skilled workers living outside Australia, building and construction workers, Queensland university graduates, and small business owners in regional Queensland (subclass 491 only). You lodge an Expression of Interest in the Department of Home Affairs SkillSelect system, then lodge a separate Registration of Interest (ROI) with Migration Queensland. A new ROI is required each program year, and you must meet Queensland's minimum requirements at the time you submit it. If you are invited, Migration Queensland says you have 14 calendar days to upload your documents and pay its application fee. If you are then nominated and invited by Home Affairs, you have 60 days to lodge the visa application.

One point matters for inner-Brisbane residents. The subclass 491 visa is for living and working in regional Queensland, and the Department of Home Affairs treats Brisbane as a major city, not a designated regional area. The Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast are classed as regional.

When this page was last reviewed, Migration Queensland's website stated that ROIs for the 2025-26 program were closed because every nomination place had been filled, and that it was waiting on the Australian Government for future allocations and program settings. Check the Migration Queensland website for the current position before you plan around it. Lodging correctly never guarantees a nomination; Queensland says nominations are offered at its discretion, based on the places available.

Where are Brisbane visa reviews and court challenges heard?

If the Department refuses or cancels a visa and the decision carries review rights, the review is done by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). The ART began operating on 14 October 2024 and replaced the former Administrative Appeals Tribunal. It carries out merits review, which means it takes a fresh look at the facts, law and policy and can reach a different decision. Its Brisbane Registry is on level 6, No1 Anzac, 295 Ann Street, in the Brisbane CBD, on the corner of Creek Street. You do not have to attend in person to apply: the Tribunal describes applying online as the easiest and safest way. Since 1 June 2026 the Tribunal must decide most student visa refusal reviews without an oral hearing, so written material carries the case.

If the Tribunal's decision goes against you, the next step is not another rehearing. The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) can only examine whether the decision-maker made a jurisdictional error, meaning the decision was not made properly according to law. The judge cannot reconsider the facts, usually cannot take new information into account and cannot grant a visa. If an error is found, the case is sent back to be decided again. In Brisbane these cases are filed at the Harry Gibbs Commonwealth Law Courts Building, 119 North Quay. The same building houses the Queensland registry of the Federal Court of Australia, which hears appeals from the first judge and, under section 476A of the Migration Act 1958, hears challenges to Tribunal decisions on character matters directly.

Visa refused or cancelled in Brisbane: the deadlines you cannot miss

Migration deadlines are short and, in most cases, final. Under section 347 of the Migration Act 1958, an application to the ART for review of a reviewable migration or protection decision must be made within 28 days after the day you are notified of the decision, or within 14 days if you are in immigration detention on the day you are notified. The Act switches off the Tribunal's usual power to extend time. For reviews of migration decisions, as distinct from protection decisions, the Tribunal says the fee must also be paid before the deadline.

Character decisions can move faster still. If you are in Australia and a delegate refuses or cancels your visa on character grounds under section 501, or decides not to revoke a mandatory cancellation, section 500 generally requires the ART application to be lodged within 9 days after notification, with no extension. Different limits apply to some character reviews, such as where the person was outside Australia.

For judicial review, the application must be filed within 35 days of the date of the migration decision, which the Court notes may differ from the date on your notification letter. The Court can extend that period, but only if you apply in writing, explain why, and the Court is satisfied an extension is necessary in the interests of the administration of justice.

Your decision letter states which time limit applies to you. Read that letter first, and work from the date of notification it describes, not the day you happened to open it.

Ministerial intervention and other last-resort options

Ministerial intervention is a request for the Minister to personally replace a tribunal decision with a more favourable one because it is in the public interest. The powers sit in sections 351 and 501J of the Migration Act 1958. You can only ask after you have a decision from the ART or the former Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The powers are non-compellable, which means the Minister does not have to consider your request and is not bound by any timeframe.

New Ministerial Instructions were issued on 4 September 2025 and amended on 17 September 2025. The Department assesses each request against those Instructions and refers only the requests that meet them. A request is not part of the visa application process and does not pause a court deadline: the 35-day period for judicial review keeps running while a request is prepared.

Lawyer or migration agent in Queensland, and how Queensland compares

Immigration assistance means using knowledge of migration procedure to prepare or advise on a visa application, or to represent someone before a court or review body. In Australia it can lawfully be given only by a registered migration agent, a legal practitioner or an unpaid exempt person such as a close family member. A legal practitioner, meaning a lawyer who holds an Australian practising certificate, gives immigration assistance in connection with legal practice and is regulated by the legal profession's own bodies. In Queensland, the Queensland Law Society issues solicitors' practising certificates and the Legal Services Commission receives complaints about lawyers' conduct.

Compared with other states, the law itself does not change when you cross the border. What changes is the nomination program. Each state and territory runs its own nomination program for the subclass 190 and 491 visas, so eligibility for nomination in New South Wales or Victoria tells you nothing about Queensland. A person who has moved to Brisbane from interstate needs to be assessed against Migration Queensland's requirements for skilled workers living in Queensland, not the criteria of the state they left.