APPLICATION FOR STUDENT VISA DENIED FOR LACK OF INTENTION TO STAY TEMPORARILY
This case involves an appeal on an application for Student Visa which has been denied by the Tribunal on the ground that it did not have a genuine intention to temporarily stay in Australia.
Facts:
The applicant is a citizen of India who had in 2013 completed a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. The applicant arrived in Australia on 12 July 2015 and had worked in Australia since August 2015.
The applicant was granted a Student Visa which was valid for a period of three years until 15 March 2018. On 29 February 2016, the applicant commenced study for a Master of Information Technology degree but he cancelled his enrolment in such course before its conclusion. By cancelling his enrolment, the applicant failed to comply with a condition of his visa which required him to remain enrolled in a course of study.
On 14 March 2016, the applicant enrolled in a Certificate 4 course in Commercial Cookery. On 12 March 2017, the applicant finished such course. The applicant commenced a Diploma of Hospitality Management course on 1 May 2017 and completed such course on 29 April 2018.
The application for the subject visa was made on 14 March 2018, some 46 days prior to the completion date of the Diploma of Hospitality Management course. At the time of the making of such application, the applicant advised the department that once he had completed his course he would start his career in “international hotels and continental restaurant, New Delhi, India.”
A delegate of the Minister refused to grant the visa to the applicant on the basis that the applicant did not satisfy the requirements of the Migration Regulations 1994– that the delegate was not satisfied that the applicant genuinely intended to only stay temporarily in Australia.
On 18 May 2018, the applicant applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (‘the Tribunal’) for a review of the decision of the delegate. The Tribunal affirmed the decision of the delegate. Hence this appeal.
Issue: Is the tribunal correct in affirming the decision of the delegate in denying the applicant’s student visa?
Law:
- Migration Regulations 1994 Schedule 2, cl 500.212
Analysis:
The Tribunal considered the applicant’s circumstances in Australia and India relative to his social networks in Australia, the applicant’s emotional connection to Australia, the applicant’s changing pattern of enrolment since his arrival in Australia, the applicant’s work history in Australia, and the applicant’s living arrangements since his arrival in Australia.
Having regard to all of the evidence before it, it was open for the Tribunal to find that the applicant did not meet the relevant criteria as set out in cl. 500.212(a) of Schedule 2 to the Regulations. Further, the Tribunal found that the applicant was vague when stating his intentions, and otherwise was unpersuasive in circumstances where his already obtained qualifications would have enabled him to return to India to pursue his stated goals and ambitions without his undertaking further study in Australia.
The applicant’s changing course of study was found to have been undertaken for the purpose of using the study visa program as a means of circumventing Australia’s migration policy.
Conclusion: The Application is without merit and is dismissed.
