Sponsors' obligations and liabilities are a serious matter and practitioners should ensure that clients are made aware of them. For instance, sponsors are required to notify Immigration (not via email) when certain events occur, such as a change to any information provided in the sponsorship application. Lack of notification can result in the following sanctions against the sponsor: a bar; sponsorship cancellation; civil penalty order; and others. Further, the visa's expiry date is brought forward if the sponsorship is cancelled.
One of the sponsorship obligations concerning subclass 870 (parent) visas is the obligation to inform Immigration when certain events occur. One such event is the change to any information provided as part of the sponsorship application, but there are several other events that trigger that obligation.
The following provision of the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) regulates the relevant type of events that engage the obligation to notify, when the notification must occur and the manner in which it must occur: