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How to Use Rules of Procedural Fairness to Save Partner and Other Visa Applications!
Imagine for a moment that you are acting for parties to an application for a prospective marriage visa.
Imagine also that notwithstanding the submission of various documentary evidence in support of the application, such as photographs, statutory declarations and a letter of support from a marriage celebrant, the Department's reviewing officer is not satisfied that the sponsor and the applicant genuinely intend to live together as spouses, and therefore proceeds to refuse the prospective marriage visa application.
Imagine further that an application for merits review is taken to the Tribunal, and the Tribunal also arrives at a finding that the sponsor and the applicant do not have a genuine intention to live together as spouses. In reaching this conclusion, the Tribunal refers to a) inconsistencies in the evidence concerning whether the sponsor has sent money to the applicant to assist him with his living costs; b) evidence that at an interview in relation to a previous prospective marriage visa application, the applicant was unable to give accurate details about the ages of the sponsor's children or about her life in Australia; c) inconsistencies in the evidence concerning whether the visa applicant had met the applicant's friends; d) inconsistencies in the evidence concerning where the applicant had stayed during her visits to the country where the applicant lived.
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