Kaur (Migration)

This matter concerned an appeal by the applicant, Ms Kaur, against a decision regarding her application for a Regional Employer Nomination (Permanent) visa (Subclass 187) under the Direct Entry stream. The dispute centred on whether Ms Kaur met the English language proficiency requirements for the visa at the time of her application.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if Ms Kaur possessed "competent English" as defined by the *Migration Regulations 1994* (Cth) and specified legislative instruments, specifically criterion 187.232. This involved assessing whether the English language test results provided on review satisfied the requirements of the regulations, considering the timing of the test relative to the visa application date.

The Tribunal found that Ms Kaur had provided evidence of an IELTS test taken on 2 April 2016, which she passed with scores meeting the specified criteria for competent English. As this test was conducted within the three years immediately preceding her visa application on 11 May 2017, the Tribunal concluded that she satisfied criterion 187.232. The Tribunal noted that the English test results considered by the original delegate appeared to be from a different test taken on 1 August 2015, and that the crucial test result from 2 April 2016 had not been provided to the Department.

Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the visa application to the Minister for reconsideration, with a direction that Ms Kaur met the English language proficiency criterion (cl.187.232) for the Subclass 187 visa. The Minister was to consider the remaining criteria for the visa.