Sieurin (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant seeking a Regional Employer Nomination (Permanent) (Class RN) visa, Subclass 187, under the Direct Entry stream. The central dispute concerned whether the applicant met the mandatory requirement of "competent English" as stipulated by the relevant migration regulations.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if the applicant had demonstrated the requisite level of English language proficiency for the Subclass 187 visa. This involved interpreting the definition of "competent English" under regulation 1.15C of the Migration Regulations 1994, which requires specific scores in approved language tests taken within three years of the visa application or invitation to apply, or holding a passport from a specified English-speaking country.

The Tribunal reasoned that the applicant could not satisfy the requirement by holding a passport from a specified country, as he did not possess one. Furthermore, while the applicant had undertaken an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test, his scores did not meet the minimum requirement of at least 6 in each of the four test components. The Tribunal rejected the applicant's argument that his IELTS scores could be benchmarked against the Occupational English Test (OET) using departmental information, finding that regulation 1.15C mandates achieving the specified score in the actual test undertaken, with no provision for substituting results from different tests. The applicant's IELTS scores, including a 4.5 in Listening, were therefore insufficient.

Consequently, as the applicant failed to meet the English language proficiency criteria for the Direct Entry stream of the Subclass 187 visa, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the visa.