Bridging Visas
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Check List Using The Regulations As A Template eg - Spouse Visa
Get Enough Sleep
Visa Application And Associated Costs
Preserving Records
Record Keeping And Management - How Long Do Documents Have To Be Kept?
Initial Requirements Regarding Accepting A Retainer
Failure Of Proper File Management Can Lead To Suspension As A Migration Agent
Interpreters
Confidentiality & Notifying The Client Of Complaint Procedure
Give Your Client A Copy Of Everything
Give Your Client The Bad News Immediately
Take Care While On Holidays
Clients & English
Check Special Requirements For Offshore Visas With The Embassy's Or Consulate's Website
Don't Accept Immigration's Assertion That Decisions Have Been Made Properly
Have No Fear Of Appeals
Never Advise Your Client To Make Life Changing Decisions Prior To The Grant Of A Visa & Trust Your Instincts
Before You Set The Fee With Your Client And Before You File A Visa Application
Oral Instructions
What Can Go Wrong If You Don't Record Your Mail Properly
Prepare Your Client For The Oath
Ideas For Chronologies For Client Files
Immigration Goes Into Hibernation On 30 June Each Year
Australia Closes Down Between Christmas & New Year
Have An Industrial Strength Office Set Up At The Office And At Home
What Is A Permanent Residence Visa?
Practice Together Or Practice In Groups
A Proper Email Account And Email Management
Undercharging And Undercutting On Fees
Positioning And Pathways And Fees (Putting All One's Eggs In One Basket)
Email & Fax Communication & Errors With Credit Cards Emerge As Troubling Issues
Preparing A Client For Merit Review Hearings Or Interviews With DIBP
Accountants And Migration Law
Passport
Berenguel - Sometimes Time Of Application Criteria Can Be Met At Time Of Decision
Bare Faced Liars & The Fraudsters
Everyone's Doing It
Bridging Visas
Visas Remain Current Until Midnight
Immigration Closes At 4pm
Looking After Secondary Visa Holders In A Visa Cancellation Process
Applying As A Secondary Visa Applicant Onshore When The Primary Visa Applicant Is Offshore
Being Illegal
Essential Prerequisites For A Ministerial Discretion Application
Last Lunge Applications
State And Territory Sponsorship
Addresses
Believing The Client
Follow Up
Make Peace With The Tax Office
No Obligation On Immigration To Chase Up Information Or Documents From Migration Agents Or Lawyers Representing A Client
Errors In Visa Applications
Spouse Visas - Unexplained Large Deposits of Money
Managing No. 8503 On Tourist Visas
Medical Consent
Statutory Declarations
Merit Review
Tax Deductibility of Migration Advice
LEGENDcom
Dates On Documents And Names On Documents
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Take A Statement
Case Management Software
Work Rights
Student
Check All Past Visa Applications
Revealing Convictions
Visa Holders Being On Their Best Behaviour
Email Communication With Immigration - Delete All Strings
No Without Prejudice Conversations With Immigration
Accounts Managements
What Is A Secondary Visa?
Identify Australian Citizens Who Support An Applicant
Communications
Schedule 1 Criteria
Second Thing To Do On Starting A File - Download The Relevant Part Of The Law
First Thing To Do When Starting Any File - Identify Any 'Rights Destroying' Deadlines
Lodging Paper Applications
Social Media & Smart Phones
References
Disputes About Parentage And Children
Helping People Pass The English Tests
Managing Emails
What Is The Pomodoro Technique?
Immigration Telephones Client
When Is A Visa Application Made In Australia
Apply For A Visa In Australia
No Visa Application Is An Island
The Hammock Principle
Bridging visas are quite limited as visas and everything should be done to have a client on a substantive visa the whole time. If things go wrong while a person is holding a bridging visa then there may be very limited room to manoeuvre. Here is one example.
The Schedule 1 criteria may prevent a person applying for a Bridging visa A (BVA) down the track. Here is an extract from Item 1301(3):
(c) Either:
(i) the applicant has made a valid application for a substantive visa that has not been finally determined; or
(ii) application has been made, within statutory time limits, for judicial review of a decision in relation to the applicant’s substantive visa application, and the judicial review proceedings (including proceedings on appeal, if any) have not been completed.
(d) Applicant must:
(i) hold a substantive visa; or
(ii) hold a Bridging A (Class WA) or Bridging B (Class WB) visa and have held a substantive visa when he or she made the substantive visa application; or
(iii) have held a substantive visa when he or she made the substantive visa application referred to in paragraph (c);
The effect of the parts in bold are that if a person applied for a substantive visa while holding a BVA then that person will not be eligible for a BVA when seeking either merit review or judicial review of the last substantive visa applied for. This may seriously impact on work rights.
So the rule is apply for a substantive visa while holding another substantive visa. If this means applying for a second or separate temporary visa this will be worth doing.
A BRIDGING VISA B DOES NOT ALLOW A PERSON TO COME AND GO FROM AUSTRALIA UNTIL VISA DECISION
A Bridging Visa B does not necessarily allow a person to travel to and from Australia until visa decision. There is a tricky little clause in paragraph 020.511.
(c) permitting the holder to travel to and enter Australia until the time set by paragraph (b), unless the Minister has specified an earlier time for the purpose.
Subparagraph (b) refers to the usual time of expiry for a bridging visa being the date of visa decision, 28 days after the merit review process, or if the person is on a separately applied for judicial review bridging visa similarly 28 days after the end of the judicial review process.
But on a Bridging Visa B the delegate can set a limit on when the person must return to Australia which can be earlier that the expiry date of the visa. This has caught out a number of Bridging Visa B holders. They do not realise their Bridging Visa B sets an earlier deadline on when they must return to Australia in order to be allowed entry to Australia. Missing that means that they may get to the airport to return home to Australia and they discover they have no visa and the airline will not let them onto the plane.
Sometimes if the person holds an ETA eligible passport (which includes Hong Kong SAR) then fast track arrangements can be made to grant an ETA but usually it is a tourist ETA and that visa will only last for 3 months.
Of course if one returns within that deadline then the BVB remains in place until final determination of the visa application.
Take care on what one puts in the BVB application. Immigration officers have been known to scout back and look at BVB’s and try and pick discrepancies with a view to applying PIC 4020 (false information).