Court rules Aboriginal people cannot be deported
In a landmark ruling, the High Court of Australia has confirmed that Aboriginal Australians are not ‘aliens’ under the Constitution. This may sound ridiculous – that a descendent of the oldest living culture and original custodians of this land could possibly be considered ‘alien’ and subsequently deported. However, this is exactly what the Australian Government […]
Coronavirus Travel Restrictions – Implications for Australian Visas
As the world brought in the new decade on the 31st of December 2019, Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to what would quickly become an epidemic with more than ten thousand confirmed cases two months later. As a result of the severity of the situation, and with the WHO declaring a Global […]
Fake immigration advice
Two Sydney women have been sentenced to conditional good behaviour bonds after pleading guilty to unlawfully providing fake immigration advice and assistance to large numbers of mainly Chinese nationals. Despite advertising their migration services and charging fees ranging from $1,500 to $2,000, neither of the women were registered migration agents. Investigators found that they provided […]
Migration Appeals – A short update
Migration Review Division – Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) The Hon Ian Callinan AC QC recently handed down his Report on the Statutory Review of the Tribunals Amalgamation Act 2015. The report covered a number of matters relevant to the conduct of migration review applications including processing times (ie. Backlogs), bridging visas for certain applicants, qualifications of […]
Courts and tribunals annual fee increases from 1 July 2019
On 1 July 2019, the annual indexation for federal courts and tribunals fees will take effect. In particular, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal – Migration and Refugee Division fees will be as follows: Section Document or service Tribunal fee 4.13(1) Application fee – decisions other than protection visa $1787 4.31B(1)(c) Application fee – review of Part […]
Visa Update – Permanent Partner Visa now 3+ years processing time.
If you’re thinking of applying for a Partner visa from offshore (the Subclass 309) visa, be aware that the Department of Home Affairs global processing times for the permanent stage of the partner visa (the Subclass 100) has now increased to around 39 months from the date you become eligible. This is a significant increase […]