Australian Immigration Daily News

In this day and age, we have all become incredibly dependent on our desktop computers, tablets, phones and other digital devices, haven’t we? 

And we tend to treat the information that we get in digital form as correct, reliable and even infallible, don’t we? 

Well, a recent decision from the High Court – Wei v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2015) HCA 51 (17 December 2015) provides a reminder of the accuracy of that old saying from the early days of computers: “Garbage in – garbage out”.  

A Thai woman under the age of 30 entering Australia is likely to be pulled aside and questioned at length at immigration about the purpose of her visit. Africans in the Flemington and North Melbourne area are 2.5 times more likely to be stopped by police than other groups despite having a lower crime rate.

Young Chinese parents have complained to the Human Rights Commissioner that their online orders for baby formula were cancelled because of their names and that some shops had signs in English which state a limit of 4 tins, but the signs written in Mandarin state the limit is 2. Supermarket giant, Woolworths which is at the centre of the baby formula saga denied any racial discrimination, and put it down to ‘ticketing error’.

Recently, New South Wales Greens Member of Parliament Mehreen Faruqi and her husband were entering the US through Los Angeles Airport. Unlike other passengers on the flight, Faruqi, a Pakistani-born Australian, and her husband were questioned for almost an hour about their previous travel and how they obtained their Australian passports. While US authorities allege that Ms Faruqi was selected for additional processing on the basis of random selection, the facts at hand point to something different, notes a recent report in the Huffingtonpost.

One might think that once an applicant has been granted a subclass 189 visa for independent skilled migration, their future in Australia is all “blue skies” and “clear sailing”: at that stage, they would have a right to permanent residency in Australia and would likely be on a pathway to Australian citizenship, as would any family members included in their visa application.

Right? 

Well, a recent decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal illustrates that “it ain’t necessarily so”: 1509158 (Migration) (2016) AATA 3022 (11 January 2016). 

Reflecting on the first day he arrived in Australia, Iranian man Dr Sina Jamali says that becoming an Australian citizen was "a dream come true"

Speaking to the ABC, after receiving his citizenship certificate, the engineering researcher from the University of Wollongong said the country had been incredibly welcoming since he arrived in 2011.

"Back on the first day when I arrived at Sydney airport there was a cab driver taking us from the airport, and at the time I thought I should try and pretend I had some sort of accent," he said.

Sometimes, there are situations where it is extremely difficult, if not practically impossible, to get a visa application successfully “across the line”.  

That’s something that I don’t like to say (and perhaps I should have written that sentence in “invisible ink”!).

As lawyers and RMAs, we’re used to being able to find solutions and fix problems.