MNT INVESTMENTS (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal, constituted by C. Packer, considered an application for the approval of a nomination of a position under the medium-term stream. The applicant sought to nominate a position, and the core of the dispute revolved around whether the nominated position met the legislative criteria for approval, specifically concerning its genuineness and full-time nature, and whether the applicant had provided sufficient current information to satisfy these requirements.

The Tribunal was required to determine if the applicant met the criteria for approval of the nomination, as stipulated by section 140GB(2) of the Migration Act 1958 and regulation 2.72 of the Migration Regulations 1994. This involved assessing whether the nominated position was genuine and full-time, and whether the applicant had satisfied the labour market testing requirements. A key issue was the applicant's failure to respond to the Tribunal's invitation to provide updated information addressing these criteria.

The Tribunal reasoned that it had no current information regarding the business, the nominated position, or the nominee since 2018. Despite being invited to provide updated information pursuant to section 359 of the Migration Act, the applicant failed to do so within the prescribed period, and no extension was granted. The Tribunal applied the principles from *Cargo First Pty Ltd v MIBP* [2016] FCA 30 regarding the qualitative assessment of a nominated position's genuineness. Given the lack of current information, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the applicant continued to seek to nominate the position or employ the nominee, nor that the position would be full-time or that it was reasonable to disregard this requirement. Consequently, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the position was genuine, and therefore, the requirements of regulation 2.72(10) were not met.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision under review to refuse the nomination.