Mao (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered a migration matter involving an applicant seeking a Skilled (Provisional) (Class VC) visa, Subclass 485 (Temporary Graduate) visa, under the Post Study Work stream. The applicant had nominated the occupation of Civil Engineer. The dispute centred on whether the applicant's Master of Business Administration qualification was "closely related" to the nominated occupation, a requirement for the Graduate Work stream.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if the applicant's Master of Business Administration qualification satisfied the criterion that the applicant's qualification must be "closely related" to the nominated skilled occupation of Civil Engineer, as stipulated by clause 485.222 of the relevant regulations. This required a comparison of the entirety of the applicant's Australian studies with the entirety of the ANZSCO description for the occupation of Civil Engineer.

The Tribunal reasoned that the assessment of whether a qualification is "closely related" to an occupation requires an objective comparison of the whole of the studies undertaken with the whole of the ANZSCO description of the occupation, rather than focusing on specific subjects or the applicant's personal views on the relationship. The Tribunal noted that the applicant had nominated Civil Engineer (ANZSCO Code: 233211), which involves planning, designing, organising, and overseeing construction and operation of civil engineering projects. The Tribunal found that the applicant's Master of Business Administration qualification did meet the requirements of clause 485.222.

Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the visa application for reconsideration by the Minister, with a direction that the first named applicant meets the criteria under clause 485.222. The Tribunal also noted that the second applicant was no longer a member of the family unit.