Australian immigration law changes quite often and the application procedure can be very complex. The Australian visa has six major visa categories and there are more than 100 visa sub classes.
- Workers : Temporary workers and skilled migrants
- Migrants : Family related and other permanent migration
- Visitors : Visitors
- Student : Student
- Employer : Employer Sponsored Workers
- Refugees : Refugees and Humanitarian
The visa application does not merely involve the filling out of the form. Each visa subclass has applicable Migration Regulation clauses in accordance with the Migration Act. Therefore the preparation of a visa application should involve the review of the Migration Regulation clauses and Migration Act and a comprehensive interview with the clients prior to the application.
In general, when the visa application is refused, you are given 28 days or other specified time limit by the immigration officer to apply for another eligible visa or for a Tribunal Review or you will have to leave Australia. When you are in breach of this time limit rule, your status becomes illegal, and you will be put in a serious situation with possible negative effects on your future visa application outside of Australia or within Australia can be very difficult.
The Review by the different Tribunal depends on the type of visa you applied for.
- MRT – Migration Review Tribunal
- RRT – Refuge Review Tribunal
- AAT – Administrative Appeal Tribunal
If your visa application refusal was affirmed by the Tribunal, then you can make an application to the Federal Court and you may be represented by a solicitor but not by a migration agent.
If the Federal Court decision affirms the visa application refusal then you have an option to write a Ministerial Letter and your Bridging visa will be changed to 'E' status. If the Ministerial Letter did not achieve a favourable decision for you then there is no other option left for you and you will have to leave Australia. If you leave Australia whilst holding a bridging visa E, you will not be eligible to return to Australia for a period of 3 years.
The visa application may look simple at the initial stage, but once an application is incorrectly prepared and the application is refused, you may have no options other than to leave Australia. We always recommend clients to prepare their visa applications through a qualified migration agent.