Naranjo Garcia (Migration)

This matter concerned an application for Student (Temporary) (Class TU) visas, Subclass 500 (Student), by a primary applicant and secondary applicants. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was required to determine whether the decisions of the delegate to refuse the grant of these visas should be affirmed.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the primary applicant satisfied the criterion under clause 500.211 of Schedule 2 to the Regulations, which requires that at the time of the decision, the applicant is enrolled in a course of study. A "course of study" is defined as a "full-time registered course," and a "registered course" is one provided by an institution registered to provide such courses to overseas students. The secondary applicants' eligibility depended on the primary applicant satisfying the primary criteria.

The Tribunal reasoned that while the primary applicant had previously held a Confirmation of Enrolment (COE) for a Certificate IV, Diploma, and Advanced Diploma of Marketing and Communication, this information was outdated. A more recent COE was provided for an Advanced Diploma of Leadership at WIC Sydney, with an end date of 29 March 2020. However, the primary applicant also provided a cancelled COE for an Advanced Diploma of Marketing and Communication at Magill College, Sydney, with a proposed start date of 1 March 2021 and an end date of 19 August 2022. In the visa application, the primary applicant stated they had a current COE and listed an enrolment in the "Advanced Diploma of Marketing" at Magill College with a status of "Never started." The Tribunal considered this to be the same course as the one in the cancelled COE, and as it had not commenced, it did not constitute current enrolment.

Consequently, the Tribunal found that the primary applicant did not meet the criterion of being enrolled in a course of study. As the secondary applicants were not members of the family unit of a person who satisfied the primary criteria, they also failed to meet their own criteria. The Tribunal therefore affirmed the decisions not to grant the applicants Student (Temporary) (Class TU) visas.