1603429 (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the decision to cancel the Subclass 457 (Temporary Work (Skilled)) visa of the applicant, Shan Huang. The dispute centred on whether the applicant had provided a "bogus document" in support of his visa application, which would constitute a failure to comply with section 103 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth).

The Tribunal was required to determine two key issues: first, whether the notice issued by the Minister under section 107 of the Act complied with the statutory requirements, and second, whether the applicant had indeed failed to comply with section 103 by providing a bogus document. The specific allegation of non-compliance related to a graduation certificate from Huazhong Normal University, purportedly issued to the applicant in July 2002.

The Tribunal found that the section 107 notice was valid and that the applicant had failed to comply with section 103. This conclusion was based on evidence indicating that the President of Huazhong Normal University, Min Ma, who purportedly signed the applicant's graduation certificate on 1 July 2002, did not become President until 2003. The Tribunal gave more weight to this official information and the lack of record of the applicant's graduation certificate on the Ministry of Education's official website than to the applicant's suggestion that Min Ma might have signed in a different capacity. Consequently, the Tribunal reasonably suspected that the graduation certificate was not genuinely issued to the applicant by the University, rendering it a bogus document.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision to cancel the applicant's visa. The Tribunal noted that it had no jurisdiction with respect to any other applicants.