Troy Andres on Australian Immigration Trends, Entrepreneur Visas, and the Future of Legal Technology
30th October 2025
Date
Interviewee
Troy Andres
Twenty-four years ago, Troy Andres was a fresh law school graduate who walked into Deloitte's Sydney office with zero experience in immigration law. Today, he leads one of Australia's most dynamic immigration practices, having built a firm that has tripled in size over the past four years through an unwavering commitment to transparency and talent development.
It wasn't destiny that brought Andres to immigration law. It was an opportunity.
"This wasn't a career path I necessarily chose as a graduate. It was something I thought would be interesting as I studied immigration law as part of my undergraduate degree," Andres reflects on his start at Deloitte's international assignment services practice in 2001. "But then as I learnt about the migrant journey and also how the employment system works in parallel, I became fascinated and really enjoyed how the two intersect in building the economy and the social fabric of Australia."
That fascination laid the foundation for a career defined not just by legal expertise, but by a genuine appreciation for the human stories behind every immigration case.
Creating a Different Kind of Law Firm
Fifteen years ago, Andres made a decision that would define his career. He left the stability of a Big 4 practice to start his own firm, driven by a vision that went beyond traditional legal service delivery.
"From a client perspective, there were certain things that were misaligned in terms of service delivery and how I wanted to do things," he explains.
The disconnect wasn't just about client relationships. It was equally about how legal professionals themselves were treated and developed. From day one, Andres built his practice on a radical premise for the legal industry: complete transparency.
"I wanted to adopt a model where everyone knows exactly what everyone else is doing. And so that transparency, I believe, still applies now. At Gilton Valeo Lawyers, we really want team members to take charge of their careers. And I think that's one of the secrets to our growth," Andres says.
Within the first 12 months of launching, he had already begun building out his team, creating an environment where professionals could truly succeed.
This philosophy isn't just rhetoric; it's embedded in the firm's operational DNA. The practice conducts an annual strategy week, delivers the strategy at the start of each financial year, and holds quarterly performance reviews. Importantly, these aren't top-down mandates, but collaborative roadmaps that give team members a blueprint for their own advancement.
"When you attract great talent as we've fortunately done, it becomes imperative to grow with your team and provide opportunities because failing to do so means losing them eventually," Andres notes. "If you give team members the freedom and inspiration to grow, together with unequivocal support, they can take the business and the firm much further than you could alone."
The Power of Strategic Talent Development
The results of this approach speak for themselves. Consider the trajectory of Fiona Wong, now the firm's managing partner. She joined as a lawyer in 2016. By 2020, she had become a partner. In the years since, the firm has tripled in size.
"She's really helped take the firm and grow it. We've tripled in size since then, which has been amazing," Andres says with evident pride in his partner's accomplishments.
This growth hasn't happened by accident. It's the direct result of a culture where talent is identified, nurtured, and given room to lead. Where strategic planning isn't reserved for senior partners but shared across the organization. Where everyone understands not just what they're doing, but why it matters and where it's heading.
Navigating Australia's Shifting Immigration Landscape
While building his firm, Andres has had a front-row seat to dramatic shifts in Australia's immigration patterns, particularly in the corporate space where his practice primarily operates. The trends he's observing reveal important insights for anyone working in global talent mobility.
"Most of our work has historically been in the tech sector," Andres explains. "What we're finding in the tech sector, for instance, is a little bit of a slowdown in terms of US clients being subjected to mandates and directives which have effectively limited the volume. While that's anecdotal, we're not seeing the influx of US talent coming into Australia that we did pre-pandemic."
The shift isn't about reduced demand for talent; it's about strategic repositioning. Companies are increasingly turning to the Asia-Pacific region for their Australian operations.
"Instead, some of our clients are looking at other jurisdictions for talent, which might be closer, more efficient in terms of travel. Additionally, while waiting for the transfer over to Australia, they can still work remotely until the visas come through without too much disruption."
This strategic pivot addresses a practical challenge: time zone alignment. When time-critical projects arise, the 15-hour time difference between the US and Australia can create significant obstacles. APAC-based talent solves this problem while maintaining the flexibility to work remotely during visa processing.
The recent changes to US H-1B policies have only accelerated this trend. "We are definitely starting to hear these conversations about pivoting now and moving staff over to Australia for that reason essentially," Andres confirms.
Australia's Immigration Program Evolution
Beyond corporate hiring patterns, Australia's immigration program itself has undergone significant transformation over the past five years. The country has moved from broad talent competition to strategic skills targeting.
"The Australian immigration landscape is constantly changing with the latest thematics centering on targeted and exceptional skills," Andres explains. "A few years ago there was significant competition for talent. Essentially, if you were highly skilled, you had the choice of all these different locations to go to like the UK, Canada, US. Now, Australia is very much focused on certain skills and specific occupations that it considers fundamental to economic development."
This targeted approach extends to state-level planning. Australia's seven states and territories each maintain their own migration plans, outlining specific needs for their jurisdictions. New South Wales, for example, prioritizes biotechnology, fintech, and other critical technologies.
However, Andres identifies a significant challenge in this federal-state approach. "Whilst the legislation is Commonwealth-based, we are observing a shift in the process with the Federal Government handing over some responsibility to the States to determine what they actually need. I agree with this approach because it allows for a more nuanced response to local labour demands. However, that said, it overlooks a lot of broader issues where the systems might conflict and therefore you're going to have a myriad of unintended outcomes."
He offers a concrete example: construction workers. Australia faces skill shortages in construction. Tradespeople like plumbers can complete a skills assessment and obtain a visa at the federal level, but they cannot actually work without state-based licensing and registration, which requires Australian certification.
"There's a huge misalignment between the two programs," Andres points out. "Until that gets resolved, having a state migration plan for lots of trades occupations won't work effectively."
The Entrepreneur Visa Challenge
One area where Andres sees significant missed opportunity is in entrepreneur visas. In July 2024, Australia closed its investor and business innovation program, leaving entrepreneurs with a small opportunity to apply under the National Innovation Visa (which was introduced in December of that year). The new program sets an exceptionally high bar.
"This visa is intended for very exceptional talent and the investor stream within this program is quite specific. So it's really looking for innovative investors but the threshold is very high," Andres explains.
The program focuses on individuals with top-tier achievements: Nobel prize winners, Olympic gold medalists, Booker Prize winners. While aiming for excellence, Andres believes this approach overlooks a crucial segment of potential contributors.
"I think we're missing out on a significant cohort of people who really want to come to Australia but they don't have these top of the field awards," he says. "Founders, entrepreneurs who haven't obviously reached that scale in a specific industry but they have that drive and the innovation to actually build businesses and more importantly they want to do that in Australia."
The previous program had its problems, with some investors not delivering the intended economic outcomes. But rather than refine the approach, policymakers scrapped it entirely. Andres doesn't see this changing in the short term, though he believes the data will eventually tell a story. "We're going to start to see some of these trends surfacing in the next few years. Particularly in the startup industry and overall deal volume."
His concern is grounded in demographic reality. At a recent Migration Institute of Australia conference, a demographics expert presented sobering projections about Australia's retirement cliff.
"Given our aging population, we're going to have a huge segment of our population, the 55 to 64 bracket, in the next decade, transitioning to retirement age. And so without migration, Australia will invariably lose a huge part of the working population," Andres recounts. Despite political rhetoric about reducing migration to protect jobs or housing, he sees these as positioning rather than realistic policy. "I don't see it changing. We are likely to see cosmetic changes to the program used as talking points by both parties."
Technology, AI, and the Future of Immigration Practice
As someone actively evaluating new practice management systems and exploring AI integration, Andres offers a grounded perspective on technology adoption in immigration law.
"Everyone keeps talking about AI, and I speak to a lot of my colleagues who own other firms. I wouldn't say there's a huge resistance, but there is still some hesitancy from a practice perspective," he observes.
His firm uses various tools for internal practice, including chronology automation for matters. But he identifies a significant gap in the Australian immigration technology landscape: form drafting automation.
The challenge is structural. "Preparing applications occurs through a particular portal. And that portal is essentially locked, in terms of the API. At present, it’s only available to one provider," Andres explains. Essentially, this creates a bottleneck, forcing firms to manually duplicate data between systems if they are not a subscriber to that system.
Despite these challenges, Andres sees clear opportunities for AI to transform practice efficiency, particularly in areas like invoice automation, something he says "no one really likes” as well as document collation. The key is finding the right balance between leveraging technology and maintaining the human oversight that immigration law requires.
"At present it's being used for drafting, for instance. Essentially, you extract data from your client, and you plug it into your system and then the current system can log on to the immigration portal and draft the application for you," he explains. "That's a very useful tool, but ultimately it doesn't satisfy the regulations as such, because you still need a professional to go through it and review everything to make sure it ticks all the boxes."
The question of how far to push AI adoption is complicated by client expectations. "Clients are going to push for that as well, because I guess eventually in the market, if you are adopting these efficiencies, then we should see improved productivity."
This leads to what Andres identifies as an ongoing conversation about transparency in AI usage. "I think clients will have a huge say in what lawyers are doing in the background. And that's where I talk about the importance of transparency in workflows. I think that's fundamentally important. That's an important conversation to be had with clients. It goes both ways."
Advice for Immigration Attorneys and Aspiring Firm Owners
For attorneys considering starting their own practice, Andres offers hard-won wisdom that extends beyond the usual platitudes about passion and perseverance.
First and most critically: understand your numbers. "When you start a practice, it's your life essentially for however long you're going to have that practice. You really have to be aware of what it costs, how you're going to manage growth," he advises. Many attorneys, he's observed, don't adequately analyze their budgeting before launching.
Second: leverage the right tools. "There are a multitude of tools available which can easily accelerate progress and I encourage founders to adopt as many as possible to help manage the administrative burden of running a practice," Andres notes. The technology landscape is far more robust than when he started fifteen years ago.
Third, and perhaps most important: have a clear vision for your role within the practice. "If you want to build a practice, it's understanding what you're going to be doing and ultimately having a clear vision, your North Star" he says. "If I'm going to be building a practice with 10 or 100 people, I need to be clear on where everyone sits, how the pieces start to fit in. Really having strategy around that I think is very important."
It's easy to get caught up in just doing the work. But if the goal is to build something sustainable and scalable, founders need to think strategically about their position in the organization and how it will evolve.
The Global Immigration Community
Despite competition and geographic separation, Andres emphasizes the remarkable camaraderie within the global immigration community. His business partner Fiona Wong was heading to Salt Lake City for the WERC conference at the time of the interview. These gatherings represent more than networking opportunities.
"It's such a great community. We all have our little interests and our niches, but as a community we do care about our clients and what our work does, not only for our industry, but for each of our respective countries," Andres reflects. "We know that it is such an important component of society and I love that. That's one of the things that I enjoy because you go to these conferences and we all bond on that basis."
This sense of shared purpose transcends borders and practice areas. Whether in Australia, the United States, or anywhere else, immigration professionals understand the profound impact their work has on individual lives and national prosperity.
About Troy Andres
Troy Andres is the founder of a leading immigration law practice based in Sydney, Australia, specializing in corporate immigration and global mobility. With over two decades of experience in Australian immigration law, he previously worked at Deloitte's international assignment services practice and Ernst & Young’s Human Capital Division before establishing his own firm in 2010. Under his leadership, the practice has grown significantly, tripling in size over the past four years while maintaining a strong focus on transparency, team development, and strategic talent placement across the Asia-Pacific region.
This article is part of the LegalBridge Magazine initiative, featuring conversations with leading immigration and global mobility experts who are shaping the future of international talent movement.
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