Federal Court. If primary and secondary visa applicants have their combined visa applications refused and they make a Tribunal application for the review of the refusals, does that constitute the making of multiple applications, one for each applicant? Is there anything in 426A "or the statutory context in which it appears which requires the Tribunal to have regard to the merits of the substantive application"? If not, does that mean that "in all circumstances no consideration of the merits is warranted"?
Some of the questions to the Federal Court (FCA) were as follows:
Question 1: If primary and secondary visa applicants have their combined visa applications refused and they make a Tribunal application for the review of the refusals, does that constitute the making of multiple applications, one for each applicant?
Question 2: Is there anything in 426A of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) "or the statutory context in which it appears which requires the Tribunal to have regard to the merits of the substantive application"?
Question 3: If the answer to Question 2 is "no", does that mean that "in all circumstances no consideration of the merits is warranted"?
The FCA answered those questions as follows: