Australian Immigration Daily News

The dust following 1 July changes is beginning to finally settle, yet many foreign nationals who are currently living in Australia or those wanting to move to Australia are scratching their heads in figuring out the best strategy to do so. Just before 1 July, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection announced major changes to the Employer Nomination Scheme (Subclass 186 Visa) as well as Regional Migration Scheme (Subclass 187 Visa).  The impact of these changes left many applicants no longer eligible to pursue permanent residence through their nominating employer.

The following changes have been implemented with immediate effect on 1 July:

English Language

The difficulty of challenging a decision by the Minister not to revoke the mandatory cancellation of a visa on character grounds is illustrated  by a recent decision of the Full Court, handed down at the end of April: Marzano v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2017) FCAFC 66 (26 April 2017).

Once again, this case shows that residence in Australia since early childhood, and personal circumstances that provide “compassionate” circumstances that weigh in favour of revocation of the cancellation decision may not be sufficient to “rescue” the visa holder’s right to remain in Australia.

And the case also shows that it may be very hard to come up with strong legal arguments to challenge a decision by the Minister not to revoke the cancellation.  In fact, the case shows that sometimes the legal representatives of a visa holder may be reduced to a position of “grasping at straws”, and that the “straws” are not strong enough to persuade the courts to overturn the decision not to revoke.

Is it possible to salvage a visa application for employer-sponsored employment after the original nomination has been refused, simply by lodging a new nomination of the proposed position?

Can lodging a new nomination enliven the Tribunal’s jurisdiction to hear an application for review of a decision by the Department to refuse the visa application?

Is this a way of solving a situation where no application has been made to the Tribunal for merits review of the refusal of the nomination of the position?

Just how important is it for Registered Migration Agents to keep records concerning their communications with the Department, whether by email or by post?

Especially when the communication in question is intended to notify the Department of a change in the agent’s contact details for the purposes of receiving notification of a decision to refuse a visa application.

The lesson is illustrated by a case that was recently decided in the Federal Court, Bui v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2017) FCA 714 (23 June 2017).

Dear Colleagues,

I want to invite you to come to the MA conference which is being held at  Westpac- The Arena, Level 1, Tower 2, Barangaroo, Sydney 2000 on 21 July 2017.

I have negotiated a special deal for all of  my regular CPD attendees ( all 40 of you) to pay $1 for 3 CPD Conference points.