Australian Immigration Daily News

At AusSkill, we are committed in assisting you and your clients to fulfil the training benchmark requirements.

With the new changes being made to the 457 visa, we can anticipate a much stricter criteria and requirements.

As such, we strongly advise migration agents and lawyers to draw attention to their clients to fulfil their Training Benchmark requirements in anticipation of the upcoming changes.

Remember that famous phrase “Just when it seemed that it was safe to go back into the water……”

Likewise, it seemed based on a decision that was made by Justice Collier of the Federal Court in the case of Tesic v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2016) FCA 1465 last December that there might just be the possibility of a new ground for challenging a decision by the Minister under section 501CA(4) of the Migration Act,  not to revoke the cancellation of a visa on character grounds.

In other words, that the door to challenging cancellation decisions might have been propped open just a tiny, tiny crack, and that there might be a new avenue open to visa holders that would enable them to contest successfully decisions by the Minister to cancel.

Sometimes it appears that a decision before the Tribunal may turn on the simplest of matters.

And that the Tribunal has apparently made an obvious error that could in theory be easily corrected (and an applicant’s visa status thus resolved).

However, even in a case of clear error, the Minister may not be prepared to concede that “the Tribunal got it wrong”.

July 1 is important date in Australian immigration.  This is due to the fact that a number of legislative requirements (new or previously announced) come into effect.  As we are just weeks away from this significant date, below is a number of useful hints and tips to assist you to be as ready and prepared to lodge as visa application as you can be.

1. Do you know your visa expiry date?

July 1 generally creates traffic in all aspects when it comes to applying for an Australian visa.  For example, it may be more difficult to secure an appointment to complete health checks or undertake the English language exam.  Historically the number of applications lodged with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection is at its highest in June and December.  Accordingly, it is important to be prepared and not leave anything till the last day to avoid being stuck in an unfavourable situation.  Check the expiry of your visa and aim to submit your application (or instruct your agent to do so) well before expiry of your current visa.  Keep in mind that frequent system outages are to be expected.

2. Time of application Criteria

Many Australian visas have “time of application” criteria which may include age, English or skills requirement.  It is important to be fully across time of application requirements applicable to the visa subclass you are making an application for.  If the time of application criteria is not met, your application may be refused which in turn can create restrictions on the types of subsequent visas you may be able to apply for whilst in Australia.

There are times when you see news stories about visa decisions that have been made by the Department that are so amazing, crazy and lacking in compassion and common sense that you literally cannot believe the words that you are reading.

That you cannot believe that the government, in the sound administration of the migration legislation, could possibly have made such a decision.

That gives new definition to the concept of “Wednesbury unreasonableness” – a decision that is literally so unreasonable that no reasonable decision-maker would have made it.