Al-Shawabkeh (Migration)

This matter concerned an application by Mr Al-Shawabkeh for review of a decision by the Department of Home Affairs to cancel his Student (Temporary) (Class TU) visa, Subclass 573 (Higher Education Sector). The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) considered the cancellation of the visa.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had complied with the conditions of his visa, specifically condition 8202(2)(a) of Schedule 8 of the Migration Regulations 1994, which requires the holder to be enrolled in a registered course. The Tribunal also considered whether there were any exceptional circumstances that would warrant a refusal to cancel the visa, and the extent to which the applicant's failure to provide information to the Tribunal impacted this assessment.

The Tribunal found that the applicant had been granted his visa on 16 February 2015 but had not been enrolled in a registered course of study since 26 April 2017, thereby failing to comply with condition 8202(2)(a). The applicant did not respond to the Notice of Intent to Consider Cancellation, and consequently, the Tribunal had no information before it to assess any discretionary matters or exceptional circumstances that might have led to the cancellation of his course enrolment. The Tribunal concluded that, in the absence of such information and given the non-compliance with the visa condition, the visa should be cancelled.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision to cancel the applicant’s Subclass 573 Higher Education Sector visa.