Today we are back with another update on the ART appeals reform. The new bill was formally passed last week, and Student visa refusal appeals — everything changes! The ART reform bill has passed and appeal review times are shrinking!ART Student visa reviews and requests for further information have clearly sped up.

On our side, we have already seen a Student visa appeal lodged back in September of last year receive a request for further information — that’s less than six months from lodgement even counting generously. Keep in mind that before the legislation, progress was still largely stuck on 2024 applications，Yet on the very day after the reform was confirmed, we received several initial requests for further information on applications lodged between July and September 2025.

For the moment it looks like ART has assigned significant resources specifically to handle requests for further information on the new H2 2025 applications, while also accelerating reviews of H2 2024 cases.That said, many of our clients who lodged in H1 2025 have, somewhat surprisingly, not yet received a request for further information. If you lodged during that window and have received a request, feel free to leave a comment to update us.

About requests for further information

Most current requests for further information target cases refused on GTE grounds. Based on what the emails ask for, the initial request centres on:

Study-status confirmation: are you still enrolled in and attending your course

Supporting evidence to provide:

A valid CoE must be provided

Genuineness evidence: provide further material showing you are a Genuine Student — including academic progress, course progression, letters of support from teachers, and a detailed future-plan information sheet

Hearings:

The format of the current request letters is basically the same as before — they do not explicitly state that the hearing is being cancelled. They all state that if the applicant fails to provide the requested material within 14 days, the Tribunal has the power to make a decision without holding a hearing, and may even dismiss the application.。

While the detailed implementation rules are still being watched, everyone needs to treat this seriously — under the new bill, ART is fully entitled to reach a decision based solely on whatever material you have already submitted.

According to follow-up reporting after the bill was released last week, as at November 2025, the ART backlog of Student visa appeal cases had reached 48,826. The officially published waiting period for a review has also lengthened from 11 months at the end of 2024 to 16 months.

Among cases already reviewed:

44% had the original decision Set Aside — i.e. the appeal s\ucceeded

25% had the original decision affirmed

29% were withdrawn by the applicant

The goal of this round of ART reform is to save members roughly one hour of work per case, so that more capacity can be freed up to work through the backlog.

As you can see, setting aside applicant-initiated withdrawals, the overall Student visa appeal success rate is above 60%. Many people have their Student visas refused for various reasons, but as long as they have genuinely been attending their course, there is still real hope of recovering the visa after a refusal.

How applicants should respond

The fact that Student visa ART reviews are speeding up is now well established. Whether you are preparing to renew or already part-way through an appeal, you need to be fully prepared mentally. The review order does not strictly follow the lodgement date at the moment, and a request for further information can arrive out of the blue at any time。ART now also has the power to decide without holding a hearing, so the single most important thing is, within the 14 days after receiving a request, to submit as complete and comprehensive a response as possible — dig deep into your own evidence to convince the ART member. Absolutely do not take this lightly!

We handle Student visa ART appeal cases almost every week.Whether it is a refusal for a mature-age student, a repeat Student visa applicant refused yet again, or a DIY application refused because the evidence or the reasoning was not properly presented, we have extensive experience overturning these cases and have successfully helped clients reverse the outcome.

Throughout the appeal process we look not only at the evidence itself, but also at logical structure and legal basis. Every submission is completed after thorough communication with the client and multiple rounds of detail-checking, and is argued with reference to the relevant legislation and case law — ensuring the reasoning is rigorous, the evidence is complete, and the logical loop is clearly closed, rather than simply “explaining the situation”.

One of our standout success stories:Refusal numbers are huge — nearly 30,000 Student visa appeals are on the waiting list and the success rate is under 50%! Yet we overturned the refusal for our 61-year-old client on an English-language-course Student visa!

If you need assistance, feel free to get in touch with us