Frans Haryadi Nauli Siregar (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of Frans Haryadi Nauli Siregar concerning his application for a Regional Employer Nomination (Permanent) (Class RN) visa, Subclass 187, under the temporary residence transition stream. Mr. Siregar, an Indonesian citizen, sought to satisfy the requirements for a technician or trade worker visa. The central dispute revolved around whether Mr. Siregar met the English language proficiency requirements at the time of his visa application.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if Mr. Siregar possessed "competent English" as required by clause 187.222 of the Migration Regulations. This clause mandates that applicants in the temporary residence transition stream must either demonstrate a defined level of English language proficiency or belong to a class of persons specified in a legislative instrument. For applications made on or after 1 July 2017, the required standard is "competent English," defined in regulation 1.15C. This definition is met if an applicant has undertaken a specified language test within three years prior to the application and achieved specified scores, or if they hold a specified passport.

The Tribunal noted that Mr. Siregar declared on his application that he had not undertaken an English language test in the three years preceding his application. While he later provided an International English Language Test System (IELTS) result from August 2020, this test was taken after the visa application date. Furthermore, the scores achieved in that test (Listening - 5, Reading - 4, Writing - 5, Speaking - 5) did not meet the minimum specified score of 6 in each band required by legislative instrument IMMI 15/005 for meeting the "competent English" criterion. As Mr. Siregar failed to satisfy the English language proficiency requirement at the time of his application, the Tribunal concluded that the decision under review should be affirmed.