Australian Immigration Daily News

Is the Tribunal required to hold a separate hearing to determine whether it should grant an applicant’s request for an adjournment?

And if the Tribunal doesn’t hold the separate hearing, has it fallen into jurisdictional error? If it declines to allow the hearing on the adjournment request, has it acted “unreasonably” in the legal sense?

These were the questions that were presented in a case that was decided in late March by the Federal Court of Australia, Bhandari v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2017) FCA 272.

OK everyone here’s your opportunity to share your experience and wisdom through another open forum!

Today’s topic: Have you had any success in getting  the “notorious” Condition 8503  “no further stay” “waived”?

Earlier this month I posted an article about a case that was decided by the Federal Circuit Court called Farhat, in which I described the challenge of getting 8503 waived as being harder than pushing a boulder uphill.   And just before Christmas of last year, I discussed another case in which an 8503 waiver was unsuccessfully sought, called Karan.  My tart and seasonal reference to that case was that it was “another lump of coal from the Department”, in other words a circumstance where in my view regulatory inflexibility prevailed over compassion.

In this day and age, it is truly shocking, appalling, terrifying and tragic for people from Western societies to contemplate that “honour killings” still occur in other countries (like Pakistan).

Maybe not as shocking as one might prefer to think, in light of the raging epidemic of lethal domestic violence that continues to afflict Australia.  And in light of the raging misogyny freely given voice to by the now “president” of the United States, a person who was elected notwithstanding his own widely publicized (Access Hollywood tape) statements that he believes that his “celebrity” entitles him to treat women as objects and to use them for his own purposes as he sees fit, and the evidence of about a dozen women who came forward to provide accounts of his conduct as a serial sexual predator.

So self-evidently, and incredibly disappointing  and disturbing as it is, the world has not come as far as we might hope in recognizing the rights of women to full equality and to be protected from violence and the threat of violence.

Ok everyone, it’s time for a Friday quiz!

How many of you are familiar with the lyrics from the George and Ira Gershwin song: “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”, from the 1937 (!!) Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers (who?) film “Shall We Dance”:

“You say either and I say either,
You say neither and I say neither
Either, either neither, neither
Let's call the whole thing off.

OK everyone, here’s an opportunity to share your experience, knowledge and wisdom with other RMAs, and with current or prospective visa applicants who may happen to be reading this blog!

Here’s the topic:

What has been your experience in getting a “waiver” of Schedule 3 from the Department or the Tribunal?