Cabrera v Minister for Immigration

In the Federal Court of Australia, Emmett J considered an application for judicial review brought by the applicants against the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. The dispute concerned the validity of the applicants' applications for Subclass 186 visas, also known as "Employer Nomination" visas. The delegate of the Minister had found these applications to be invalid on the basis that the visa application charges had not been "electronically matched" until after the expiry of the applicants' previous substantive visas.

The primary legal issue before the Court was the interpretation of Regulation 2.12JA of the *Migration Regulations 1994* (Cth), specifically the meaning of "electronically matched" in the context of visa application charges paid via BPAY. The Court was required to determine whether the date of making an internet visa application, for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of Item 1114B(3)(c) of Schedule 1 of the Regulations, was the date the application was lodged online or the date the payment for the application charges was electronically matched.

Emmett J reasoned that the delegate had erred in their interpretation of Regulation 2.12JA(3). The Court held that the phrase "electronically matched" referred to the process by which the payment is identified and allocated to the specific application within the Department's systems, not the physical receipt of funds by the bank. The delegate's finding that the application date was 26 June 2017, based on the BPAY payment being processed on that date, was incorrect. Instead, the Court determined that the application was made on 24 June 2017, the date it was lodged online. As the applicants held substantive visas on 24 June 2017, they satisfied the requirements of Item 1114B(3)(c).

The Court ordered that the decision of the delegate be set aside and remitted to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection for redetermination according to law.