PARK (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant seeking a Skilled (Provisional) (Class VC) visa, Graduate Work stream. The central dispute concerned whether the applicant met the Australian study requirement, a prerequisite for this visa subclass. This requirement mandates that the applicant must have satisfied the Australian study requirement in the six months immediately preceding the date of their visa application.

The legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if the applicant had indeed satisfied the Australian study requirement within the specified timeframe. This involved interpreting the definition of "completed" in relation to academic qualifications and assessing the correct completion date of the applicant's Master of Professional Accounting course. The regulations define the Australian study requirement as completing one or more registered courses in Australia, undertaken while holding a study-authorising visa, over a total of at least 16 calendar months and at least two academic years of study, with all instruction conducted in English.

The Tribunal found that while an initial academic transcript indicated the applicant completed her Master of Professional Accounting on 14 March 2016, this was an administrative error. The evidence established that the applicant was required to sit a deferred examination on 19 March 2016. Consequently, the Tribunal accepted the amended academic transcript, which stated the course completion date as 11 April 2016, as the correct date. This corrected completion date meant the applicant satisfied the Australian study requirement within the six months immediately preceding her visa application.

Based on these findings, the Tribunal determined that the applicant met the criterion specified in clause 485.221 of Schedule 2 to the Regulations. The Tribunal remitted the visa application to the Minister for reconsideration, with the direction that the applicant satisfies this particular criterion.