AAT Merits Review
(For Visa Refusals & Cancellations)

Process

• AAT will send you an acknowledgement letter to confirm that your application for merits review has been received. AAT will also inform the Immigration of your application and request the Immigration to provide it with all relevant documents about your case.

• The case is then allocated to a Member who reviews the documents.

• AAT will invite you to attend a hearing, and/or to provide information or to comment or respond to information.

• In some cases, the Member may announce the decision at the end of the hearing. The Member may decide to send you written reasons for the oral decision, in which case you will be sent the reasons within 14 days after the hearing. 

• However, in most cases a decision will not be made at the end of the hearing and when the Member makes a decision. AAT will send you and the Immigration a written statement of decision and reasons.

Hearing

• A hearing generally runs for one to two hours.

• During the hearing, you are required by the AAT member to answer a series of questions directly related to the visa refusal or cancellation. This is a golden opportunity for you to fully present your circumstances in person, adding additional information to your advantage which may not have been included in the submitted documentation.

• The AAT member usually allows your representative (migration professionals) to put in further explanation and concluding remark towards the end of the hearing.

Consequences/Duration of Your Stay

After the Immigration receives advice of the decision on your review, the Immigration will act to give effect to AAT’s decision.  Your immigration status in Australia may change following our decision. If you hold a bridging visa associated with the application that was the subject of the AAT’s review, or with a decision to cancel a visa, your bridging visa may cease, depending on our decision.  One of the following situations may apply:

• Where AAT sets aside the decision under review and substitutes a decision that your visa be granted, your bridging visa will cease.

• If AAT remits the decision under review back to the Immigration for reconsideration, your bridging visa will remain in effect while your application is being processed by the Immigration.

• If AAT affirms the decision under review, deciding that the Immigration’s decision should not be changed, your bridging visa will cease either;

  • 35 days after our decision is made (if your bridging visa was granted on or after 19 November 2016); or

  • 28 days after you are notified of AAT’s decision (if your bridging visa was granted prior to 19 November 2016).

  • If you decide to seek judicial review of AAT’s affirmed decision, you may be eligible for a bridging visa that will keep your immigration status lawful throughout this process. You should apply for another bridging visa before your current bridging visa ceases.

Location

Tricks and Common Reasons for Refusal

1 – Unfamiliarity with How AAT Works and Its Mentality

In many cases, applicants submit their supporting documentation for merits review in an disorderly manner, giving AAT a hard time digging through tons of paperwork to get things in the right order when picking up a new application. This will potentially lead to endless back-and-forth clarification, wasting lots of time on both sides and can even result in an unfavourable decision. This is common since applying for a AAT merits review is the very first time for most applicants. As a result, our team have developed our own system for labelling, coding, structuring and, where necessary, cross-referencing documentation so your application can be submitted in the most presentable and logical manner.

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2 – Careless Yet Costly Mistakes

Applying for AAT merits review is seem as a delicate work of art due to the staggering amount of attention, paperwork, and details involved. A seemingly minor error such as a typo, a date entered wrong, or a tick in the wrong box in the application form can prove costly as the AAT processes all applications strictly based on migration law, in particular Migration Act 1958 and Migration Regulations 1994. Even a small error can be regarded as failing to satisfy a visa requirement and lead to a visa refusal. To minimise incidents as such, our team pay extra attention while editing and drafting paperwork and always proofread and also conduct a final review of documentation before submission.​

Application Fees​

The application fee is $3,153.

The fee may be reduced by 50% if AAT is satisfied that the full payment has caused, or is likely to cause, severe financial hardship to the review applicant. AAT will refund 50% of the fee if it makes a favourable decision on your case.

Please note: you may incur third-party charges, for example, for translation.

Processing Time​

Unbeatable 5-step Services at Microscopic Level - How Exactly We Make It Hassle-free

It goes without saying the first and foremost thing in a visa application is get a clear picture of what visas you are indeed eligible for, and equally importantly, which one of them suits you the most. We’ve seen too many clients who, for some reason, rushed an application and halfway through realised they were not actually on the right path due to ineligibility issues before approaching us, for example, because:

• their self-claimed work experience was not or only partially accepted by the Immigration, which was unfortunately common

• the length of their work experience or residence in Australia (as required by some visas) was not recognised by the Immigration

• they settled on an unsuitable occupation at the beginning of a work/employment visa application just because the occupation was migration-eligible whereas their daily duties failed to be in line with the prescribed job tasks of the selected occupation

• they simply took into consideration the visa requirements by the Immigration without even considering the criteria of skills assessment by the skills assessing body as well as those of the government for state/territory nomination which vary from time to time even without prior notice

• they applied for the partner visa they were not actually eligible for as they failed to meet the cohabitation requirement from the Immigration’s perspective

• the turnover and/or assets they relied on for business visa application was not recognised by the Immigration due to various reasons