Australian Immigration Daily News

Members of the Migration Alliance are encouraged to nominate for positions to the board of our sister organization, the Migration Institute of Australia on MA’s “United Profession” ticket in the upcoming elections for MIA’s Board of Directors. Nominations for the MIA Board are open until 6 October 2015. 

The form that can be used to nominate for the Board can be found at the following link:  

http://www.mia.org.au/documents/item/749 

“…….the Tribunal must act in a way that is fair and just” – section 357A(3) of the Migration Act. 

Section 357A is not simply an abstract, idealistic statement of the way that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal is supposed to conduct merit reviews of Departmental decisions.  It is actually “prescriptive” of the Tribunal’s duties and obligations. 

But I would be willing to venture that if a “poll” were to be taken amongst RMAs, the results of the “ballot” would show that there are occasions where the Tribunal falls short of this requirement, and determines a matter in a way that is unfair and unjust.  

The cancellation of visas on character grounds continues not only to prompt what appears to be a flood of litigation in the Federal courts, but also to attract attention in the media.

As a matter of fact, there was an article in yesterday’s (29 September) Sydney Morning Herald on this subject, “Raised in Australia, he’s among a wave of Kiwis held on Christmas Island as visas revoked”, which can be found by clicking on the link.

The article focuses on the story of a 29-year old man, Ricardo Young, who has lived in Australia since the time he was 4 years old, when he arrived with his parents from New Zealand. It says that Mr Young did all his schooling in Australia, played “lower grade rugby league”, and has a 5 year-old daughter and partner of 8 years in Sydney. The article also recounts that Mr Young served a two-year prison sentence for aggravated robbery and assault. On the morning that he was scheduled for release from prison, he was taken from the Silverwater Jail to the Villawood immigration detention centre. He was then taken to Christmas Island.

For those who may have missed my post from late last week about the "United Profession" ticket for the board of our sister organisation, the Migration Institute of Australia, I am re-posting it:

Members of the Migration Alliance are encouraged to nominate for positions to the board of our sister organization, the Migration Institute of Australia on MA’s “United Profession” ticket in the upcoming elections for MIA’s Board of Directors. Nominations for the MIA Board are open until 6 October 2015. 

The form that can be used to nominate for the Board can be found at the following link: 

In the last couple of months, we have seen that some judges of the Federal Circuit Court have differing views concerning how the criteria for the grant of a student visa should be applied.

In late July, Judge Manousardis held, in Khanna & Ors v Minister for Immigration & Anor, (2015) FCCA 1971 (20 July 2015) that having a desire to settle in Australia on a long term basis if an appropriate visa pathway become available is not inconsistent with having a genuine intention to stay in Australia only temporarily (if the applicant is not ultimately successful in obtaining a visa to remain in Australia at the end of the student visa period).

Indeed, in my post about the Khanna case, I commented that Judge Manousardis’s interpretation is consistent with what I believe is a very widely-held perception of the student visa program, namely that there are many tens of thousands (if not more!) people who originally came to Australia as students, and who then decided to stay here to work and live after they were able to gain further visas either of a temporary or permanent kind.  And indeed I would suspect that if most student visa holders were asked about their “subjective intentions”, they would say that they would like to stay in Australia after their studies are completed if there is a viable pathway for them to do so.  Furthermore, the very structure of Australia’s visa system certainly seems to contemplate that people who come here as students may be allowed to remain, with the “Temporary Graduate” visa (subclass 485) being a prime example!