Goel (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an appeal by an applicant concerning the refusal of a Skilled (Provisional) (Class VC) visa, specifically a Subclass 485 (Temporary Graduate) visa. The core dispute revolved around the applicant's compliance with the English language proficiency requirements at the time of visa application lodgement.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicant satisfied clause 485.212 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994. This clause mandates that an application for a Subclass 485 visa must be accompanied by evidence of either having undertaken a specified language test and achieved the required score within a specified period, or holding a passport of a type specified by the Minister. The relevant instrument, IMMI 15/062, outlined these requirements.

The Tribunal found that the applicant did not meet the alternative requirement of holding a specified passport. Therefore, the applicant had to satisfy the English language proficiency test requirement under clause 485.212(a). The applicant lodged his visa application on 22 January 2019, declaring he had not undertaken an English test within the previous 36 months. He subsequently provided an IELTS test result dated 14 February 2019. The delegate determined this test result post-dated the application lodgement, thus failing to meet the timeframe stipulated in the regulations. The applicant argued this was an honest mistake due to a misunderstanding of the lodgement requirements, believing the test results could be provided later. He also submitted a prior IELTS test result from 2015. However, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not meet the requirements of clause 485.212 as the evidence of English language proficiency was not provided at the time of application lodgement as required.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision not to grant the applicant a Subclass 485 visa.