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Our clients faced two issues when applying for their partner visa: whether the applicant and sponsor were in a genuine, continuing relationship and whether there was a compelling reason to waive the sponsorship limit for their application, as the sponsoring partner had sponsored two prior partners.

We put together a submission to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), providing detailed evidence that our clients met the married relationship criteria and strong reasons to waive the sponsorship bar based on their circumstances, including a dependent child, genuine intentions, and severe hardship that would occur if the family were separated. The thorough submission saw the ART make a quick decision in favour of our clients, allowing them to move ahead with their permanent partner visa.

A large agricultural employer and their business sponsor came to us for help following a departmental decision to cancel its current sponsorship and prohibit it from future applications. The client was accused of breaching their obligations to provide equal terms and conditions to visa workers as local workers, as well as failing to provide the requested records.

In our appeal, the Tribunal found that sponsored workers were paid at or above the nominated pay rate and that while the employer did fail to provide certain documents within the timeframe, we were able to demonstrate this was a minor and inadvertent single mistake. The ART set their cancellation decision aside and our client was able to continue to sponsor overseas workers.

A client came to us to appeal a visa refusal decision for his subclass 500 Student Visa that would affect him and his family, after the ART decided he didn’t meet the Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirement because he didn’t intend to stay temporarily.

At his hearing, we were able to demonstrate his consistent and genuine study history and explain his strong ties to his home country, where he had strong family ties and property ownership, to demonstrate his genuine intention to return home after completing his degree. The Tribunal agreed with us that the GTE requirement was met and cancelled the visa refusal decision, allowing our client and his family to remain in Australia on his 500 Student Visa and continue his studies.

Our client approached us for help after facing a refusal decision for his 820 Partner Visa because he did not meet the Public Interest Criterion 4001 – a character test – as the client, who had handled his initial visa application independently, had failed to submit the documentation in time.

We were able to provide assistance, providing the necessary police clearances to the ART to show our client had no criminal record; we also pre-empted the request for a Form 80, avoiding any further delays or risks to the appeal. The Tribunal found our client met all aspects of the requirements and set aside the visa refusal, allowing his 820 Partner Visa to be granted, and the time spent during the process counted towards permanent residency in Australia.