Today we’re sharing a case where we successfully appealed a Student visa refusal and secured a 5-year Subclass 485 work visa (see cover image).
Client background
The client holds a Hong Kong passport and earlier in the year lodged a Student visa renewal application through another agent. The Department of Home Affairs requested a medical examination, but the previous agent failed to notify him in time, which resulted in a Student visa refusal in August (Image 2). After receiving the refusal, the client came to us to lodge an appeal.
Several key points
Tight timeline
The client had already completed his course in early July (Image 2), and the course met the requirements for a Subclass 485 work visa. Because he holds a Hong Kong passport, he was theoretically eligible to apply for a 5-year 485 visa, and after four years of residence in Australia he could apply for a Subclass 189 permanent visa. However, once the Student visa was refused, if he couldn’t lodge the 485 visa application within six months of completing his course — that is, by 8 January — he would no longer be able to use the completed course to apply for a work visa, and the downstream Hong Kong stream 189/191 permanent residency pathway would also be affected.
Meeting Student visa grant requirements:
Since the client had already graduated and the refusal was received on 11 August (Image 2), even if the appeal s\ucceeded and the Student visa application was sent back for reprocessing, the Department could still refuse the visa if he was no longer enrolled in study. We therefore had to arrange a new school and course for the client in advance, to make sure he continued to meet the Student visa grant requirements.
The real challenge on this case was a race against the clock.
If the Student visa wasn’t reinstated in time, the client wouldn’t be able to apply for a 485 visa immediately. He would have had to wait until his additional course was completed and then wait another 1 to 2 years before being able to reapply.
So as soon as the client came to us, we moved quickly to lodge the appeal and request priority processing (Image 3). In the end the matter was under review from September all the way through to November before a decision came.
To safeguard the Student visa grant, we arranged a new school for the client in advance and he enrolled without issue.
With thorough preparation of the supporting materials, we finally s\ucceeded in the appeal (Image 3) and recovered the Subclass 500 Student visa (Image 4). We then lodged the 485 work visa application as quickly as possible — bear in mind it was already mid-December, more than five months after the course completion date, with fewer than 20 days left before the 485 window closed! On the same day the 485 was lodged, the 5-year work visa was granted!
In the end it all worked out — a close call, but a great result. We believe this was the best Christmas present the client could have asked for!
A final reminder: the ART currently has a very heavy backlog of cases, so even matters that qualify for priority processing should be expected to take several months.
And for anyone who needs to renew a visa, please don’t leave your renewal until the last minute. Renewal processing times can be lengthy, and if the Student visa isn’t granted in time, your subsequent visa arrangements may well be affected.
