Australian Immigration Daily News

As we have seen over the last year, the Minister has been (very) actively using the powers given under the Act to personally cancel the visas of non-citizens who have committed serious criminal offences and who, as a result, do not pass the character test. 

And recent decisions from the Full Court in the cases of Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Stretton and Minister for Immigration  and Border Protection v Eden have forcefully brought home the fact that the potential grounds for challenging a cancellation decision are really quite narrow, and thus the prospects for success in contesting a cancellation are commensurately “poor”. 

In both Stretton and in Eden, the Full Court reversed decisions by Judge Logan of the Federal Circuit Court in Queensland where His Honour had ruled that the visa cancellations were essentially “disproportionate” and therefore “legally unreasonable”. Judge Logan had used a pithy analogy in describing those Ministerial decisions, equating the visa cancellations to “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”. 

Given the increase in the number of student visa cancellations in recent months, the message from the department of immigration to student visa applicants and visa holders seems to be that although visas are granted quickly they are also likely to be cancelled easily.

In the seven months to March of this year, some 9000 student visas have been cancelled by the DIBP, according to a recent report in The Australian.  Compared to two years ago where the figures stood at between 8000 to 9000 cancellations, it is looking like student visa cancellations could hit 15,000 this year.

Student visas may be cancelled on various grounds, including plagiarism. The Australian’s report highlighted the case of Shaheryar Khan, who had his visa cancelled because he was reported to have copied a number of his assessments directly from internet sources without attribution.

The Education and Employment References Committee have produced the following document:

disgrace-temp-worker-report-1.pdf

It is well worth RMAs having a read and then providing feedback via the contact information below.

Committee Secretariat contact:

Committee Secretary
Senate Education and Employment Committees
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Phone: +61 2 6277 3521
Fax: +61 2 6277 5706
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

What is the correct interpretation of the term “main business” in Regulation 1.11? 

This is not merely an academic question, of interest only to those who wish to delve into the arcane and Byzantine intricacies of migration law. 

No, the question has genuine, real world, practical importance for people who have held Provisional Business Skills visas (subclass 163) and who, after several years of conducting their businesses in Australia, are seeking Residence Business Skills visas (subclass 892). 

Okay so we know that inventory lists are not the kind of thing that gets business owners excited, that is until something happens and the time comes to claim on your insurance.   When you’re filling out your claim form, you’ll probably remember the big things, computers, office equipment and the like, but what about the smaller items, which may be low cost but could also add up in value!

When something bad happens to your business, such as a fire, theft or malicious damage, the costs incurred could be significant. Consider how quickly you could claim if you didn’t have complete records?  Creating an inventory list will help consolidate records and manage your response to such an event, without relying on a foggy memory.

Waiting for a claim to be paid so that you can get your business running as per usual can be a stressful time, so you’ll want to speed up the process and eliminate the need of proving ownership, and a good way to get this done is by having an office inventory list.