David Gu is the Principal Lawyer and Director of ProActive Legal. He is one of Australia’s leading experts in immigration law with over 17 years of experience.

David is an Accredited Specialist in Immigration Law having been accredited by the Law Society of New South Wales since 2014. There is only 46 Accredited Specialist in Immigration Law in New South Wales and less than 100 across Australia.

David is also a Notary Public in New South Wales, Australia.

Prior to entering private practice, David worked in the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citizenship (now the Department of Home Affairs) from 2005 to 2010. During that period, he worked in number of different roles including as a decision maker in the Sydney Office assessing range of visa and citizenship applications, as well as a Legal Officer in the National Office in Canberra providing legal advice. David has also worked briefly in the Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal (now part of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal) prior to working at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

David handles all kind of visa applications, make representations to visa cancellations, business monitoring and sponsorship sanctions, merits review, judicial review and ministerial intervention requests. With his wealth of knowledge of Australia immigration laws, policies and procedures and extensive practice in the area, he has successfully resolved countless number complex and challenging immigration problems.

David is also frequently recommended to clients, and consulted, by registered migration agents, lawyers and barristers on complex immigration issues. He has a reputation among many clients and registered migration agents that if there is any solution to a difficult and complex immigration issue, ‘David would know it’.

David has also won challenging judicial review cases without a barrister, represent client in court as an advocate. Two notably cases are:

• Singh v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship & Anor [2012] FMCA 145 – This case was the first ever judicial review case concerning the Public Interest Criterion (PIC 4020) dealing with false and misleading information and bogus documents provided in visa application.
• Yao & Ors v Minister for Immigration [2016] FCCA 3164 – This case concerned the interpretation of a technical accounting term used in the migration legislation for visas under the Business Innovation and Investment Visa Programme.

Prior to the ending of dual regulation of lawyers from the migration agent regulatory scheme on 22 March 2021, David was also a registered migration agent. His former MARN was 1066304.

David also advises and practices in employment disputes, commercial and civil dispute resolution and litigation. In addition, he also assists and represent registered migration agents in responding to investigation and disciplinary matters initiated by the Office of the Migration Agents Regulation Authority (OMARA).

David is bilingual in English and Mandarin (Chinese).