In January 2015, Indian citizen Gurminder Singh’s student visa was denied by the Department of Immigration after he failed to complete multiple courses in the last ten years in Australia.
The department observed Mr Singh only decided to undertake the study in Australia as a means to maintain ongoing residency in Australia.
Mr Singh sought a review of this decision with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) of Australia, which in November 2018, affirmed the department’s decision to deny him yet another student visa.
Mr Singh’s case was among thousands of cases finalised by the AAT in the first half of the 2018-19 financial year.
However, thousands are yet awaiting their decision as the number of migrants seeking review of the visa decision has reported a significant rise.
The AAT reports cases related to migration were up by 9% this year compared to the same period last year.
While the AAT independently reviews a wide range of decisions which include matters relating to Australian citizenship, child support, family assistance, social security, migration and refugee visas, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, taxation, workers compensation and veterans support, the majority of applications for review pertained to the Migration and Refugee Division in the first half of the 2018-19 financial year.
Of 63,858 cases on hand as at December 31st, a whopping 54,125 cases at hand were in the Migration and Refugee Division, the AAT said.
Within this, 36,386 pending cases pertained to decisions related to migration whereas 17,739 pending cases were related to Refugee decision.
While the AAT had finalised 7,609 cases in the first six months of 2018-19, the backlog is significant.
Ms Sian Leathem, the AAT’s Registrar, has attributed the backlog to an increase in demand for review and lack of staffing resources.
“The number of lodgements in this [MRD] division has more than doubled over the past three years, while the number of members available to review decisions has not kept pace with this demand.
“As a result, the number of cases we have on hand has grown significantly.
“The AAT continues to work with the government in relation to our resourcing needs, including the appointment of additional members,” Ms Leathem said in her opening statement to a Senate Estimates hearing in October 2018.
Of 96,542 student visas cancellations, 44,569 student visas were cancelled between June 2015 and December 2017.The highest number of cases, 2890, related to the nomination and sponsor approval decisions while 2728 cases pending with the tribunal are student visa refusal cases.
The average processing time for migration cases was 398 days as of December 31st 2018.
