What Is A Permanent Residence Visa?
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
Sometimes there is confusion about just what is a permanent residence visa. S.30(1) of the Migration Act states:
30 (1) A visa to remain in Australia (whether also a visa to travel to and enter Australia) may be a visa, to be known as a permanent visa, to remain indefinitely.
But most (if not all) permanent visas contain this about the term of the visa (using the subclass 888 Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa as an example):
888.5 When visa is in effect
888.511
Permanent visa permitting the holder to travel to and enter Australia for 5 years from the date of grant.
So what all this means is that a permanent residence visa does enable one to stay in Australia indefinitely but if one wants to leave Australia and return beyond the 5 year period, one must obtain a further permanent residence visa. If a person is overseas at the point when the 5 year period expires then one would need to obtain another visa (ordinarily a resident return visa if one met either the residence requirements or the Australian connection requirements).
So it means that permanent residence does not quite mean permanent residence. However the PR visa does not expire in five years, only the re-entry rights expire in 5 years. For example a person is granted a PR visa onshore on say 1 May 2015. That person could spend the next five years less one day offshore. That person’s re-entry rights on that visa expire on 30 April 2020. But the person could arrive in Australia on that day and remain for years, provided the person did not leave Australia after 30 April 2020 without first obtaining another permanent resident visa which would ordinarily be a Resident Return visa.
For PR business visas, visa cancellation does not have immediate effect as long as the person appeals within time against the visa cancellation decision. It raises some useful strategic issues for business cancellation cases. S. 134(8) of the Migration Act which deals with business visa cancellations, states:
(8) A cancellation under this section has effect on and from:
(a) if the person applies to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of the decision to cancel the visa — the 28th day after the day on which the Administrative Appeals Tribunal gives its decision on that review; or
(b) if:
(i) the person’s visa was cancelled under subsection (4); and
(ii) the relevant person to whom paragraph (4)(a) applied has applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of the decision to cancel that person’s visa;
the 28th day after the day on which the Administrative Appeals Tribunal gives its decision on that review;
[s. 134(4) deals with secondary visa holders – as long as the primary visa holder has applied to the AAT the secondary visa holders visa continues as well.]
So what this means is that even if the 5 year point is already reached during an AAT hearing process, the person still holds a permanent residence business visa until 28 days after the AAT makes its decision. But if the person wants to leave Australia during that period then the difficulties arise. A person cannot leave Australia after the 5 year term of a permanent residence visa and have a right of re-entry – a separate visa would have to be obtained for that purpose, which may be difficult in circumstances where the original permanent residence visa is subject to a visa cancellation decision.
Strategically it means that the 5 year period following the grant of a permanent residence business visa has to be monitored and the applicant ideally should be present in Australia on that anniversary date so as to retain the right of presence in Australia pending the outcome of the AAT hearing.