Santos (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a Subclass 187 (Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme) visa, Temporary Residence Transition stream, made by an applicant who stated he was a citizen of the Philippines. The central dispute concerned whether the applicant met the English language proficiency requirements stipulated by the relevant migration regulations.

The Tribunal was required to determine if the applicant satisfied clause 187.222 of the Regulations, which mandates that an applicant in the Temporary Residence Transition stream must have vocational English at the time of application. Vocational English is defined by regulation 1.15B as either achieving a specified score in a language test or holding a specified passport, with these requirements detailed in legislative instrument IMMI 15/005.

The Tribunal found that the applicant did not hold a passport from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, or the Republic of Ireland, thus failing to meet the passport criterion for vocational English. Furthermore, the applicant's IELTS test results from 21 January 2017 showed a score of 4.5 for listening, which was below the minimum requirement of 5.0 in each of the four test components specified in IMMI 15/005 for demonstrating vocational English. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not possess vocational English as defined by the regulations at the time of his application.

Given these findings, the Tribunal remitted the visa application for reconsideration by the Minister, with a direction that the applicant met the criteria under clause 187.222 of Schedule 2 to the Regulations.