Australian Immigration Daily News

Have you ever filed a visa application at the last minute?

Like the day before a client's previous substantive visa is due to expire?

Maybe it's a better question to ask: "How many times have you filed an application at the last minute?"

Have you ever gotten a "bad" decision from the Tribunal on a Partner visa case?

A decision that affirmed a refusal of the Department that seemed "wrong", or that just skimmed over the evidence you presented for your client and did not include a full and fair analysis of the facts?

Have you wondered: "Is there anything I can do to fix this?"

Do you work on Temporary Skills Shortage visas?

If so, are you being driven over the brink by the Department's, or the Tribunal's, interpretations of the so-called "genuineness test" under regulation 2.72(10)?

If that is the case, you should be aware of an important decision that came out of the Federal Circuit Court less than a month ago: it is called Michellechen Pty Ltd v Minister for Immigration & Anor (2019) FCCA 3355 (22 November 2019).

Do you ever handle student visa applications?

If you do, then you need to know about the recent decision of the Full Court in the case of Inderjit v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (2019) FCAFC 217.

This decision addressed an important question involving the Genuine Temporary Entrant criterion:

Have you ever had occasion to have a case involving visa cancellation on character grounds?

This might seem to be a "niche" aspect of Australian migration practice - after all, isn't the preparation of visa applications of various kinds the "bread and butter" of most RMAs' day-to-day work?

But if you have a look on Austlii at the decisions coming our of the AAT and the Federal Courts, you will see that visa cancellations on character grounds are quite common place, and that while RMAs have been busy working on visa applications, the Department and the Minister have their own "cottage industry" involving visa cancellations.