Visa Cancellation on Character Grounds Can Have Permanent Consequences

 
 

What needs to be said at the outset is that visa cancellation on character grounds can lead to permanent prohibition from ever returning to Australia. This is because of the operation of condition 5001 which, as relevant reads:

[As is explained in the rest of the paper, all the provisions set out in this extract of 5001 concern visa cancellation on the basis of criminal convictions or an adverse character assessment.]

5001

[5001]   The applicant is not:

(a)….

(b)    ….

(c)       a person whose visa has been cancelled under section 501, 501A or 501B of the Act, if:

(i)   the cancellation has not been revoked under subsection 501C(4) or 501CA(4) of the Act; or

(ii)  after cancelling the visa, the Minister has not, acting personally, granted a permanent visa to the person; or

(d)       a person whose visa has been cancelled under section 501BA of the Act if the Minister has not, acting personally, granted a permanent visa to the person after that cancellation.

Condition 5001 applies to most visas. Hence condition 5001 would prevent a person from returning to Australia if he or she had a visa cancelled on character grounds. Note of course this refers to cancellation, not refusal on character grounds.

The only way condition 5001 could be overcome would be is the visa applicant while offshore was sponsored by a relevant Australian person or entity and an application for review was made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which would enliven the powers of ministerial discretion and the minister granted the visa as a result. An offshore spouse visa case would be an obvious example, however not something which one would see happen in anything but the rarest of cases.

Barbara DavidsonVisa Cancellation on character grounds can have permanent consequences