Sandhu v Minister for Immigration

This matter concerned an application to the Federal Circuit Court of Australia by an applicant challenging the Administrative Appeals Tribunal's decision to affirm the cancellation of his Student (Temporary) (Class TU) (Subclass 573 – Higher Education Sector) visa. The dispute arose from the Tribunal's finding that the applicant had ceased to be enrolled in an eligible course and consequently failed to comply with condition 8516 of his visa, thereby providing a ground for cancellation under s 116(1)(b) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth).

The court was required to determine whether the Tribunal had properly considered all relevant evidence and visa criteria when affirming the cancellation decision, and whether it had committed any jurisdictional error in its assessment. Specifically, the court examined the Tribunal's findings regarding the applicant's enrolment status, his compliance with visa conditions, and its subsequent consideration of discretionary factors relevant to the cancellation of the visa.

In its reasoning, the court adopted a summary of the Tribunal's decision, which detailed the Tribunal's findings that the applicant's failure to maintain enrolment was within his control. The Tribunal had considered the applicant's claims of receiving poor advice from migration agents but was not satisfied that misadvice had occurred or that a migration agent had failed to respond to a Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation. The Tribunal weighed the substantial period of breach of condition 8516, the applicant's shift to unrelated cookery courses suggesting an attempt to use the visa for a different purpose, and the lack of substantial hardship to the applicant or his family upon cancellation. While acknowledging the applicant's completion of some commercial cookery units and his stated intention to re-enrol in a Master of IT course, the Tribunal concluded, after considering all circumstances, that the visa cancellation was warranted. The court found no jurisdictional error in the Tribunal's decision.