Below is information sent by reader Maggie Taaffe last Friday.

Hi Peter

Please see my email to the AAT below and the response.
Cheers

Earlier this year a Federal Circuit Court judge set aside a decision of the MRT affirming a decision by the Department to refuse a student visa.

The judge held that a student visa applicant wishing to (ultimately) settle in Australia did not fail to meet the requirement that overseas students must have an intention to “genuinely to stay in Australia temporarily.”

Below is an extract from his judgement

38 The Tribunal made a jurisdictional error by assuming that the applicant’s wishing to settle in Australia in the long term, if given the opportunity, implied that the applicant did not intend genuinely to stay in Australia temporarily. The Tribunal thus failed to consider whether the applicant intended to return to her home country at the end of the period for which the Subclass 573 visa she applied for would be valid.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCCA/2015/1971.html

The following email has been received by Liana Allan of Migration Alliance today:

"Thank you for your email of Wednesday 2 September where you sought information about the OMARA.  The 2014  Review of the OMARA recommended that the OMARA be fully integrated back into the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

This integration was completed with effect from 1 July 2015 and the OMARA now sits in the Visa and Citizenship Services Group of the Department which reports to the Secretary of the Department. The OMARA now reports directly to Ms Mary-Jane Jones, Regional Director NSW/ACT.

A few people have rung the OMARA on 1300 226 272 today.  One of those was an RMA.

Both times when the OMARA was asked who their CEO was, they said they had none.  They also responded that Dora Chin Tan (previous Acting CEO) is no longer the Acting CEO and has gone to work in Canberra at the DIBP. 

On a telephone call to the above number at 4:20om AEST today, an RMA (who does not wish to be named), spoke to Brad at the OMARA.  

Consumer Protection?

There have been some subtle changes to the registration certificates for migration agents and the evidence of that registration as shown as shown in the registration certificates below.

A registered migration agent is obliged to have in their office, prominently displayed, evidence of the fact of their registration as a migration agent and a copy of the Code of Conduct.

Presumably this is to avoid a situation where an unsuspecting member of the public would attend the offices of a person giving immigration assistance but is not in fact registered. Thus, the certificate which evidences the registration would then act to allay the concerns that the member of the public may have about dealing with an unregistered person.