Nguyen (Migration)

This matter concerned an appeal by an applicant against the cancellation of her Student (Temporary) (Class TU) visa. The applicant had been granted the visa on 10 August 2017, subject to various conditions, including condition 8202 of Schedule 8 to the Migration Regulations 1994. The delegate of the Department of Home Affairs issued a Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation on 11 May 2018, alleging a breach of condition 8202. Despite the applicant's response, her visa was cancelled on 20 September 2018. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was tasked with reviewing this decision.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had breached condition 8202 of her Student visa. This condition, as relevant, required the applicant to be enrolled in a full-time registered course and to maintain satisfactory course progress and attendance. The Tribunal also had to consider whether, having found a breach, the discretion to cancel the visa should be exercised.

The Tribunal found that the applicant had not complied with condition 8202(2)(a) as she was not enrolled in a full-time registered course between 29 August 2017 and 13 January 2019. While the applicant had initially intended to pursue a Doctor of Education degree with a Vietnamese government scholarship, her enrolment in that course was cancelled on 29 August 2017. She subsequently enrolled in an Advanced Diploma of Leadership and Management, which she found unsuitable, and later expressed an intention to enrol in a Diploma of Project Management. The Tribunal was not satisfied that this latter course was related to her original doctoral studies or that it met the requirements of her Student visa, which was granted for higher education. The Tribunal concluded that the grounds for cancelling the visa outweighed the grounds for not cancelling it.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision to cancel the applicant's Class TU visa.