Alice is Estrin Saul Lawyers’ Special Counsel in the Character and Visa Cancellations Practice.

Her passion lies in assisting visa holders experiencing family violence to leave abusive relationships without losing their ability to remain in Australia, and assisting those facing character cancellation or refusal due to criminal convictions. She regularly represents clients dealing with the Department of Home Affairs, as well as at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Federal Court.

Alice particularly enjoys the complexity of these two areas and the interesting and individual situations that they give rise to. She has also given a number of workshops and presentations for the Migration Institute of Australia, the Law Society of WA and the Law Council of Australia, as well as for other private law firms. She regularly works with Law Access to improve access to justice for people detained in immigration detention, particularly those facing permanent removal from Australia and their families.

Testimonials

“I would like to thank you for the quality of service provided by your firm. My case was a very complicated one and the outcome of it is an evidence of your comprehensive knowledge & experienced professional work. I would like to extend a special gratitude to Alice & Thanh for the utmost dedication and support throughout the entire process. I would not hesitate to recommend your service to anyone whom in need of your service and looking forward to work with you for my future visa matters.” – Name withheld

“The service provided by the firm was exceptional from the start. We were given wrong advice from our previous migration agent and had the visa refused, and were lost, frustrated and confused with what to do next. Armed with their experience and knowledge in the law, Daniel Estrin and his team helped meticulously craft a plan to assist us. Special thanks has to go to Alice who was able to calmly help us overcome hurdles and roadblocks that we faced during the process, in the most painless way as possible. We highly recommend anyone who is uncertain or having issues with the migration process, to go through Estrin and Saul. #thisfirmisawesome ” – RH & YZ

Recent cases:

29 June 2022 – Successful response to a Notice of Intention to Consider Revocation of Australian citizenship (three years’ imprisonment)

28 June 2022 – Successful grant of Resident Return visa for a former permanent resident (permanent residency ceased in 1980s)

19 May 2022 – Approval of Australian citizenship by conferral within 49 days of lodgement

27 April 2022 – Successful grant of Resident Return visa for a former permanent resident (permanent residency ceased in 2013)

26 April 2022 – Successful grant of permanent Partner visa (period of unlawfulness, schedule 3 waiver, sponsor convictions)

7 March 2022 – Successful grant of a permanent Partner visa despite breakdown of the relationship and applicant’s criminal convictions

18 January 2022 – Successful AAT s501 matter (money laundering)

13 January 2022 – Approval of Australian citizenship despite criminal convictions (money laundering)

16 November 2021 – Approval of Australian citizenship by conferral despite not meeting residence requirements (spousal discretion)

13 October 2021 – Successful grant of a permanent Partner visa despite breakdown of the relationship and family violence

5 October 2021 – Successful grant of Resident Return visa for a former permanent resident (permanent residency ceased in 2017)

11 May 2021 – Successful before the Federal Court in arguing that the Minister failed to engage with representations when making a personal decision to not revoke cancellation of a visa on character grounds (10-year prison sentence))

2 Dec 2020: Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (good character requirement for Australian citizenship) – link here.

25 Nov 2020:  Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (s501, financial offences) – link here

6 November 2020 – Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (family violence provisions)

4 November 2020 – Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (substantial criminal record including family violence and drug trafficking) – s501 – link here

30 October 2020 – Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (permanent visa refusal set aside on the papers) – genuine relationship established

30 October 2020 – Successful response to Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation of Partner visa on the basis of criminal convictions

28 October 2020 – Successful partner visa grant (family violence provisions)

17 September 2020 – Successful Partner visa grant (family violence provisions)

28 July 2020 – Successful before the Federal Court in arguing that a personal decision by the Minister to not revoke cancellation of a visa on character grounds was legally unreasonable (life imprisonment)) (https://jade.io/article/757644)

28 July 2020 – Successful response to Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation of approval of Australian citizenship – approval not cancelled

9 June 2020 – Successful 186 visa grant (health waiver required)

5 May 2020 – Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (genuine relationship established)

8 April 2020 – Successful Partner visa grant (family violence provisions)

2 April 2020 – Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (substantial criminal record including online grooming offence) – s501 (http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/AATA/2020/1255.html)

28 February 2020 – Successful before Federal Court on AAT’s failure to consider good character at time of decision on a citizenship application (https://jade.io/article/713981)

12 February 2020 – Successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (substantial criminal record) – s501 (http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/AATA/2020/159.html)