Zhu and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the case of Zhu and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. The dispute concerned the cancellation of Ms. Zhu's business skills visa under section 134 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The Minister had cancelled the visa due to Ms. Zhu's alleged failure to comply with section 135 of the Act.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the cancellation of Ms. Zhu's visa was invalid due to the alleged non-compliance with section 135. A further issue was whether, even if the cancellation was not invalid, the Minister retained a residual discretionary power under section 134 to grant a visa.

The Tribunal found that a failure to comply with section 135 did not automatically render a visa cancellation invalid. It reasoned that section 134 conferred a broad discretion on the Minister to grant a visa, and this discretion was not necessarily extinguished by a prior cancellation decision, particularly where the grounds for cancellation were not established. The Tribunal determined that the decision under review, which upheld the cancellation, should be set aside and substituted with a decision to grant Ms. Zhu a visa.