When sending applications, submissions and evidence to the AAT by post, you should allow for longer mail delivery times as Australia Post regular mail delivery may take up to six days, warns the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Despite increasing the cost of sending a letter by regular mail from 70 cents to $1 earlier this month, the unprofitable national postal services provider, Auspost says regular mail could take up to six business days to get delivered. Pay $1.50 and your letters get priority – with delivery promised within 4 business days. Only Auspost’s express post service ‘guarantees next day delivery’.

Don’t get caught out on this as there are strict timelines for applying for an AAT review. Review applicants must lodge their application for review within the time limit referred to in the letter from the Department notifying them of the decision. If you do not apply within the time limit AAT will not be able to consider the application for review as it does not have any power to extend the time limit.

To avoid delays, the AAT recommends that, where available, you consider lodging your application or documents using AAT's online lodgement facilities.

The AAT also accepts applications, submissions and evidence by email, fax or in person at one of AAT's offices.

Australian Prime Minister has made two major initiatives in Australia’s immigration policy. Now students studying the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) have a way to apply for permanent residence in Australia. There is also a new Entrepreneur Visa introduced that will be implemented from December 2016.

How the change in Immigration Rules can make Immigration to Australia Easier for Students

The initiative for STEM students is for those who are doing their masters and PhD from research institutes in Australia. The field of ICT and STEM is quite broad and hence, a lot of student migration is expected for completing their qualifications in Australia, as it gives them extra points in the skilled migration points test. 

Since the change in the point system will be implemented accordingly at the end of the year, it cannot be said for sure of how many extra points STEM students will receive to migrate to Australia. However, studying in Australia is definitely going to make their immigration process easier.

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).