Kola (Migration)

This matter concerned an appeal by Mr Kola to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal regarding the refusal of his Student (Temporary) (Class TU) visa, subclass 500. The original visa application was lodged on 2 May 2019 and refused on 24 June 2019. The refusal was based on the delegate's finding that Mr Kola had provided false or misleading information in relation to a previous visa application, thereby failing to meet Public Interest Criterion (PIC) 4020.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether Mr Kola had breached PIC 4020 by providing false or misleading information in a material particular in relation to a visa application. Specifically, the Tribunal had to consider whether Mr Kola's answer of "No" to the question of whether he had ever had an application for entry refused was false or misleading, given a prior refusal of an eVisitor subclass 651 visa on 19 September 2018. If a breach of PIC 4020 was found, the Tribunal then had to consider whether the requirement to satisfy PIC 4020 should be waived, which could only occur if there were compelling circumstances affecting the interests of Australia or compassionate or compelling circumstances affecting the interests of an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen.

The Tribunal found that Mr Kola had indeed provided false or misleading information in his visa application, as he had failed to disclose a previous visa refusal. His explanation that he was unaware of the requirement for a passport to have more than six months validity at the time of his previous application was not accepted as a satisfactory reason for the omission. Furthermore, when questioned about compelling or compassionate circumstances that might warrant a waiver of PIC 4020, Mr Kola provided no evidence to support such circumstances. Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision to refuse the visa application.