Sumit (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant whose Subclass 573 (Higher Education Sector) visa was cancelled. The dispute centred on whether the applicant had breached a condition of their visa, specifically condition 8202 of Schedule 8 to the Migration Regulations 1994, which requires a student visa holder to be enrolled in a registered course. The applicant's visa was cancelled on the basis that they were not enrolled in a registered course for a significant period, and had instead pursued numerous vocational courses without maintaining enrolment in a higher education course as required by their visa subclass.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if the applicant had complied with condition 8202 of their visa. This condition mandates that the holder must be enrolled in a registered course and has not been certified by their education provider as failing to achieve satisfactory course progress or attendance. The Tribunal was also required to consider whether, having found a breach of the visa conditions, it should exercise its discretion to cancel the visa.

The Tribunal found that the applicant had not complied with condition 8202(2) as they were not enrolled in a registered course for a substantial period. The applicant conceded this fact and admitted to knowing that their Subclass 573 visa required enrolment in a higher education course, and that a different visa subclass would be necessary to study only vocational courses. Despite this knowledge, the applicant enrolled in multiple vocational courses, completing only one. The Tribunal considered the applicant's submissions and relevant government policy guidelines in exercising its discretion.

Ultimately, the Tribunal affirmed the decision to cancel the applicant's visa, concluding that, considering all the circumstances, the cancellation was warranted.