Australian Immigration Daily News

What do you think?

Or to pose the question appropriately “in ‘stralian”, waddya reckon?

Do you imagine if you had a client with a lengthy record of offences in both Australia and his home country, including a conviction that indisputably causes him to fail the character test, that the client’s visa application would be “DOA”, or “dead meat”?

Suppose you have a Partner visa case involving an allegation of “non-judicially determined” family violence.

Suppose further that after the Partner visa application is refused by the Department in the first instance, the Tribunal refers the matter to an independent expert for a determination as to whether family violence has occurred. 

Suppose further that the independent expert excluded from consideration claims of threats and verbal abuse communicated to the applicant after the relationship ceased, and a claim of physical violence said to have occurred on a date when it was uncertain whether the relationship had ceased, or not.

Have you ever been treated rudely by an employee of the Department (hahaha)???

I just thought I would share an experience that I had recently and test to see if it resonates with anyone in the RMA/migration lawyer community!

It has come to the attention of Migration Alliance that the Migration Institute of Australia has issued a “MIA Notice” – No. 86: 17 November 2017 concerning a new Legislative Instrument concerning the “Arrangements for Partner and Prospective Marriage Visa Applications” – IMMI 17/101, dated 16 November 2017 – that has the potential to cause panic, distress, alarm and uproar among Registered Migration Agents and their clients!! 

See the MIA notice below.

And so far, despite our best efforts, we have not been able to confirm at all what the MIA has said.

Is there anything that you can do when “Murphy’s Law” strikes, and everything that could possibly go wrong, does go wrong? 

What if a visa applicant is entirely “blameless”, and the applicant’s failure to satisfy a criterion for the grant of a visa is the result of circumstances entirely outside the applicant’s control? 

Do the Federal Courts have a general power to “dispense with the Migration Regulations” in order to prevent a harsh or unjust outcome?