In truth, I really don’t know if I can solve your problems. But I have been doing this - helping employers and individuals with immigration issues – since 2007. It’s not an easy area of law, not at all. Certainly, there are more lucrative specialties in which to practice law, areas that are less stressful, less political, offering the lure of an easy life.

So how on earth did I end up doing what I do?

Well, I could tell you all about how I topped the University of Melbourne law faculty in Migration Law – but that’s not where I learnt about the visa process and the toll it can take. Not in law school.

I could tell you about how I sat the gruelling exams to get accredited as a Specialist in Immigration – but again, that’s not where I learnt about immigration, its joys and heartaches. How it can make or break a couple. A family. A business. A life.

No.

Instead, if you have the patience, I’m going to tell you about a series of life-shaping events that, for better or worse, made me the immigration lawyer I am today.

My immigrant grandparents are no longer with us. But in my lifetime I have lived as an expat in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

I loved the experience of living overseas. But I also know what it is to be a stranger in a strange land.

I know what it feels like to be forced to carry an “Alien Registration Card” at all times.

I know what it is to exist in a limbo that is home and yet not home – and all the instability and uncertainty that come with not knowing where you will be living in a year’s time. Dealing with a bureaucracy that constantly changes the rules. Case officers who, with the stroke of a keyboard, can change the course of your life in the 5 minutes before their tea break.

I clearly remember the pain and frustration of leaving the fate of my sponsored work visa in the hands of a migration adviser who kept me in the dark – balls were being dropped, calls were not being answered, deadlines were approaching...

But I also remember the kindness of the HR manager (an incredible woman with her own migration story) who took it upon herself to find a new immigration lawyer to handle my application - someone who, apart from being a technical expert, was efficient, supportive, and understood what this meant to me and the company. That same immigration lawyer held both our hands through the entire process until my visa was granted.

I was fortunate in that my team wasn't willing to gamble on my visa application. I only wish everyone could find the right help when they need it.

Australia is a country defined by the paradox of a national identity based on coming from somewhere else. My family was no different.

I will never forget what Australia did for my grandparents.

I will never forget the kindness of the HR manager and immigration lawyer who helped secure my employer-sponsored visa overseas.

And I will never forget how my partner cried when we got that precious email notifying us that she could live with me in Australia.

Being an immigration lawyer is hard. But I also know that being an immigration applicant is harder still.

And it has been my life’s work to do whatever I can, in however small a way, to make it easier.