My partner visa has been refused! What do I do?
So you came to Australia, fell in love with an Australian citizen (or permanent resident) and applied for the onshore partner visa subclass 820. You went on-line, found information, applied for the visa, paid the fee and uploaded all your documents. Unfortunately, your case officer has now sent you a request and your application looks like it may be refused for whatever reason. It is imperative to obtain expert advice before a decision is made on your visa. One of our migration agents will be able to sit down with you and examine your case, whether or not it is saveable, and what the possible next steps may be.
If you receive a request or information from the case officer that infers your visa will be refused, you will now need to make a decision:
- Do you withdraw the application (to not have a visa refusal); OR
- Do you allow the visa to be refused and apply to the migration review tribunal?
If you withdraw the application, you will lose your application fee and you will need to depart Australia within 28 days. Once offshore, you may then apply for an offshore partner visa.
If you choose to apply for the MRT, the cost is $1760 and you must apply within 21 days of the grant letter. The Tribunal will take approximately 300-400 days to request a hearing. It is important to note that all matters before a tribunal will be conducted de novo. This means that the tribunal member who is making the decision will reconsider the matter in full, using the same authority and discretion as the original decision maker. The tribunal member will “stand in the shoes of the original decision maker” with all the information previously available to the original decision maker as well as any new information/evidence before him/her.
Once a visa is refused in Australia, you cannot apply for a further visa onshore, you can only apply to have the decision reviewed at the Tribunal due to section 48 of the Migration Act.
It becomes a very expensive exercise, especially if you did not seek legal advice prior to lodging the application from a registered migration agent.