Sardana Family Trust & K Sharma & Y Shelli (Migration)

The Sardana Family Trust and K Sharma & Y Shelli (Migration) case involved an application for approval of a nomination under the Temporary Residence Transition nomination stream. The delegate had refused the application on the basis that the applicant's nomination did not satisfy regulation 5.19(3)(f)(i)(A) of the Migration Regulations 1994, specifically concerning the training benchmark criteria. The matter was brought before the Tribunal for review.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had met the requirements for approval of the nomination under regulation 5.19(3), with a specific focus on regulation 5.19(3)(f) which mandates the fulfilment of training commitments and compliance with applicable training obligations during the period of the applicant's most recent sponsorship approval. This involved assessing whether the expenditure on training courses and the nature of those courses met the criteria outlined in IMMI 13/030, which sets out the training benchmarks.

The Tribunal considered various pieces of evidence, including tax invoices for training courses. It found that a course titled 'prepare dishes using basic method of cookery' undertaken by a kitchen hand was irrelevant to the position, as a kitchen hand is neither a cook nor a chef. Furthermore, the Tribunal noted that for certain claimed expenditures, there was insufficient evidence of payment or of an Australian employee attending the training. The Tribunal also found that a payment to "Restaurant & Catering NAT" was not demonstrably a payment to an industry training fund as contemplated by the regulations. The Tribunal reiterated that the onus is on the applicant to provide sufficient relevant information to enable a decision-maker to determine the issues, and that it is not required to make the applicant's case for them.

Ultimately, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review to refuse the nomination, finding that the applicant had failed to satisfy the training benchmark criteria as required by the regulations.