Tribunal CANNOT accept late applications
The Full Court of the Federal Court has unanimously held that 'Brown No 2 was wrongly decided and should not be followed'
Material taken to be before the Minister
Federal Court (Full Court): Where a Minister 'relies on the assessment of a Departmental officer and an officer ... within the Department withholds ... a not insignificant part of that assessment, ... the Minister will be taken to have failed to take that not insignificant material into account'
PIC 4007 waiver: a matter of likelihood, not possibility
Federal Circuit Court: the 'error made by the Tribunal was that it stopped short of assessing whether it was “unlikely” that the grant of the visa would result in undue cost or prejudice. Its analysis was entirely focused on the possibility'
Direction No 53: mandatory considerations for GTE
Federal Circuit Court: 'The Minister argued that the consequence of that was that the Tribunal did not need to refer to every factor mentioned in Direction No. 53. However, that is not what is meant by saying that the Direction is not a checklist'
Direction 65: AAT’s use of terms ‘secondary consideration’
The Full Court overturned a decision from a single judge of the Federal Court that had held that "the use of the term 'secondary [consideration]' conveys an interpretation of Direction 65 that establishes a hierarchy of considerations to be applied in all instances"
A medical certificate that was not ‘properly completed’
Federal Court: appellant failed to attend Tribunal hearing; Tribunal dismissed the application for non-appearance; appellant provided a medical certificate that was not 'properly completed'; Tribunal found appellant did not have sufficient explanation for non-appearance and did not reinstate proceedings
Domestic violence: what constitutes ‘treatment’
Federal Court: 'if the evidentiary requirements were satisfied simply by a statutory declaration made by [a nurse], who is a non-treating [nurse], the words [under IMMI 12/116] in relation to treatment would be otiose'
AAT Bulletin Issue # 47 – 3 Dec 2018
The latest AAT Bulletin contains references to several migration and citizenship review decisions.
Effect of Minister’s error on AAT’s jurisdiction
'That there were errors in the [Minister's] decision record does not affect its character as a Pt 5 reviewable decision'
AAT’s deferral of late applications
Although the AAT will defer dealing with late applications in the MRD pending an appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court, that does not necessarily mean that late applicants should defer lodging their review applications any further