Tourneur Holdings Pty Ltd (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application by Tourneur Holdings Pty Ltd for approval of a nomination of a position under the Temporary Residence Transition stream. The dispute arose from the refusal of this nomination, which the applicant sought to have reviewed. The Tribunal was tasked with determining whether the applicant met the requirements for the approval of the nomination.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the nominee would be employed on a full-time basis for at least two years, as required by regulation 5.19(3)(d)(i) of the Migration Regulations 1994. This regulation mandates that for a nomination to be approved, the Tribunal must be satisfied that the nominee will be employed full-time for at least two years, with terms that do not expressly preclude an extension of employment.

The Tribunal reasoned that the nominee had ceased working for the applicant in mid-2019 to care for her seriously ill husband, and the applicant business, 'Tour Cleaning Services', had subsequently wound down its operations and no longer existed. Mr Tourneur, representing the applicant, attributed the failure to meet the nomination requirements to unreliable advice from a migration agent and the lengthy processing times. However, the Tribunal found that it was required to be satisfied of all relevant criteria at the time of its decision. As the applicant business was no longer operating and the nominee was not employed, the Tribunal concluded that the requirement for future full-time employment for at least two years could not be met. The Tribunal affirmed the decision under review to refuse the nomination.