Cedar Meats (Aust) Pty. Ltd. (Migration)

This matter concerned an application for merits review by Cedar Meats (Aust) Pty. Ltd. (the applicant) of a decision to refuse the nomination of an identified person for a visa under the Temporary Residence Transition stream. The dispute centred on whether the applicant met the requirements for approval of the nomination as set out in the *Migration Regulations 1994*. The decision was made by the Tribunal, with Member Sheridan Aster presiding.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant satisfied the requirements of regulation 5.19 of the *Migration Regulations 1994*, specifically subregulation (5)(h), which mandates that the nominator must be actively and lawfully operating a business in Australia. The Tribunal was required to determine if the evidence presented, or lack thereof, supported a finding that this requirement was met at the time of the decision.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on the absence of contemporaneous evidence demonstrating that the applicant was actively and lawfully operating a business in Australia. Given that no new information had been provided to the Tribunal since the delegate's decision, and in the absence of such evidence, the Tribunal could not be satisfied that the nominator met the requirement under regulation 5.19(5)(h). Consequently, the Tribunal found that regulation 5.19(4)(e) was not met, leading to the conclusion that the applicant did not satisfy the overall requirements of regulation 5.19.

Accordingly, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review to refuse the nomination, as required by regulation 5.19(3)(b).