Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA)

The Australian Government has signed Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA) with the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Norway, Slovenia, Malta and Italy. If you hold a passport from one of these countries these agreements entitle you to some subsidised health services for essential medical treatment while visiting Australia.

If you applied for, or received a Subclass Visa 410 (Retiree Visa) before 1 December 1998, you may be able to access Medicare under the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement of your home country.

If you applied for Subclass Visa 410 after 1 December 1998, you’re not eligible for Medicare and you’re not covered under the Reciprocal Health Care Agreements.

Period of cover

If you are a resident of New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Finland or Norway, you are covered for the length of your stay in Australia.

If you are a visitor from Belgium, the Netherlands or Slovenia, you need your European Health Insurance card to enrol in Medicare. You are eligible until the expiry date shown on the card, or for the length of your authorised stay in Australia, if that is an earlier date.

If you are visiting from Malta or Italy, and you are a resident and citizen of those countries, you’ll be covered by Medicare for a period of six months from the date of your arrival in Australia.

Access to cover

Reciprocal Health Care Agreements cover treatment that is medically essential. This means any ill-health or injury which occurs while you are in Australia and requires treatment before you return home.

Students

If you are in Australia on a student visa from the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Italy or New Zealand, you are covered by Medicare. Students from Norway, Finland, Malta and the Republic of Ireland are not covered by the agreements with those countries.

Note: With the exception of students from Belgium, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden it is a condition of your student visa that you take out Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC).

Your entitlements

As a resident of one of these countries, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Norway, Slovenia, Malta and Italy, you are entitled to the following health or injury treatments while you are in Australia:

• free treatment as a public in-patient or out-patient in a public hospital
• subsidised medicine under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
• Medicare benefits for out-of-hospital treatment provided by a doctor

Residents of the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand are entitled to:

• services as a public patient in a public hospital (including outpatient services) for medically necessary treatment medicines available on prescription which are subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), at the general rate.

 

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Visa refusal / cancellation

Where the decision to refuse or cancel a visa is made by the Minister personally, the person has no right of appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).


If a delegate of the Minister either refuses or cancels a person's visa and the person is in Australia they will have a right to have the decision reviewed by the AAT. If they are not in Australia, they may also have a right to have the decision reviewed, for example, if they have either a sponsor or nominator in Australia.


However, if a person's visa is mandatorily cancelled because they are serving a custodial sentence and have ever been sentenced to 12 months or more, or have been convicted of, had a charge proven or found guilty of a sexually based crime involving a child, they have no right of appeal at the AAT.


In these circumstances, the Department of Immigration & Border Protection (DIBP) will provide the person with 28 days to request revocation of the decision to mandatorily cancel their visa. A decision made by a delegate of the Minister to not revoke a mandatory cancellation decision is reviewable by the AAT.


Strict time limits apply on appeals to the AAT. Applicants in Australia seeking reviews of decisions must apply to the AAT within nine (9) days of being notified of the decision.


For applicants outside Australia, the application for review must be lodged by a sponsor or nominator within 28 days of the day of being notified of the decision.


The AAT will be deemed to have confirmed the decision if it does not make its own decision within eighty four 84 days of the date on which the applicant was notified of the original decision.


Whether or not there is an appeal avenue available to the AAT, an applicant may seek judicial review of the decision, if they believe the decision was not lawfully made.

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The Character Requirement (Australian visas)

The Character Requirement

​Everyone who wants to enter or stay in Australia must satisfy the character requirement as set out in Section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (the Act). This includes all non-citizens, sponsors of visa applicants and non-migrating family members seeking to enter or stay in Australia.

Visa holders must also continue to satisfy the character requirement.

Irrespective of which visa you apply for, you must advise Australian Immigration if you have any criminal convictions inside or outside of Australia, and you may be asked to provide police certificates as part of your assessment against the character test. If you do not inform Australian Immigration of your criminal history, your visa application may be refused or your visa cancelled.

The Department of Immigration & Boorder Protection (DIBP) and the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection have the power to refuse or cancel a visa on the basis that a person does not pass the character test.

In some cases, even if you do not pass the character test, DIBP or the Minister can exercise discretion not to cancel your visa. 

Decisions to cancel or refuse visas on the basis of the character test are made after full consideration of all the circumstances of a case.

Mandatory cancellation

If you are currently serving a full-time custodial sentence and have ever been sentenced to 12 months or more imprisonment, regardless of time actually served, or have been convicted of, had a charge proven for or have been found guilty of a sexually based crime involving a child, your visa must be cancelled. DIBP will provide you with 28 days to request revocation of this decision if your visa is cancelled in these circumstances.

In considering requests for revocation of a mandatory cancellation decision, DIBP will consider all circumstances of your case.

The character test

You will not pass the character test if:

• you have a substantial criminal record
• you have been convicted of escaping from immigration detention, or convicted for an offence that you committed:
• while you were in immigration detention
• during an escape from immigration detention
• after an escape, but before you were taken into immigration detention again.
• you are or have been a member of a group or organisation, or had or have an association with a person, group or organisation that the Minister reasonably suspects of being involved in criminal conduct
• the Minister reasonably suspects that you have been involved in people smuggling, people trafficking, genocide, a war crime, a crime against humanity, a crime involving torture or slavery, or a crime that is of serious international concern, whether or not you have been convicted of such an offence
• your past and present criminal or general conduct shows that you are not of good character
• there is a risk that while you are in Australia you would:
• engage in criminal conduct
• harass, molest, intimidate or stalk another person
• vilify a segment of the Australian community
• incite discord in the Australian community or in a part of it
• be a danger to the Australian community or a part of it.
• you have been convicted, found guilty or had a charge proven for, one or more sexually based offences involving a child
• you are subject to an adverse security assessment by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
• you are subject to an Interpol notice, from which it is reasonable to infer that you are a direct or indirect risk to the Australian community, or a segment of the Australian community.

Substantial criminal record

A substantial criminal record is based on the length of a sentence imposed by a court of law, rather than the time actually spent in prison.

For the purpose of the character test, a person is deemed to have a substantial criminal record if they have been:

• sentenced to death or life imprisonment
• sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more
• sentenced to two or more terms of imprisonment (even if served concurrently), where the total of those terms is 12 months or more
• found by a court to be not fit to plead in relation to an offence but found to have committed the offence and as a result have been detained in a facility or institution.

Discretionary powers and Ministerial Direction 65

When a person does not pass the character test, the Minister or his delegate will decide whether or not to refuse the application or sponsorship, or to cancel their visa. When making this decision, a wide range of factors will be considered, including the protection of the Australian community, the best interests of any minor children in Australia who may be affected by a decision to refuse or cancel the person's visa and expectations of the Australian community. Other factors are also considered, such as Australia's international legal obligations, the impact of visa refusal or cancellation on a person's family in Australia, any impact on Australian business interests and the impact on the Australian community if a visa were to not be refused or cancelled.

The exercise of the discretion is guided by Ministerial Direction 65 made under section 499 of the Act.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Australian visas - Appeals and Reviews

If your visa application is unsuccessful, it is usually possible to apply to have the decision reviewed. There are two major avenues through which to apply for review:

• The Tribunals
• The Minister for Immigration.

Our experience and services As legal professionals, we are called on to represent applicants or companies in cases where:

• Applications have been unsuccessful
• Immigration department officials have taken action or are about to take action which is improper or beyond their power
• Visas have been cancelled

How Nevett Ford Lawyers are able to assist:

• Reviewing case to advise on prospects of appeal
• Advise on other immigration options – separate or parallel to an appeal or review
• Preparing all aspects of the appeal, including written submissions to the Tribunal/ Court
• Preparing the case and client for the Tribunal or Court hearing
• Preparing and collecting evidence to support the case
• Representing and advocating for clients at the hearing

We have assisted applicants with appeals and merits reviews in the following contexts:

• Health
• Work experience
• Visa cancellations and refusals    
• Character
• Fraud
• Skilled migrants
• Language ability
• Genuineness of marital, spousal, de facto, same-sex relationship
• Genuineness of visitor/ student status
• Company sponsorships and nominations
• Eligibility of sponsors
• Persecution
• Credibility
• Whether notices from the Immigration Department were properly sent
• Breach of employer sponsorship undertakings or visa conditions and obligations

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) 
Immigration Department decisions can be reviewed by application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Generally speaking the Tribunal is are able to reconsider all the facts, circumstances and the law in a particular case and make a decision on the merits.  The Minister for Immigration
The Minister for Immigration has a personal power to intervene and grant a visa, despite refusal by the Immigration Department and the Tribunal. However, this power is not used often by the Minister and she/he is not obliged to use this power. The power may be used if the Minister considers it is in the public interest to do so, even if a person does not meet the legal requirements for a visa.

Courts It is also possible that some decisions of the Immigration Department or the Tribunal can be appealed to the Federal Courts. This type of review is different because it is generally confined to whether an "error of law" occurred in the making of the decision, rather than whether the decision was correct based on the facts.

The review and appeals processes are complex, and any right to review or appeal must be dealt with comprehensively and quickly. Why an application may be refused or a visa revoked
Applications may have been refused for a variety of reasons. Some examples include:

• Immigration officers may have misinterpreted and not properly applied the law to the facts or may have overlooked the facts
• The application was not properly prepared or presented
• The applicant was deemed not to meet visa criteria, including character and health
• The company/ employer sponsor was deemed not to meet sponsorship or nomination criteria
• The applicant was deemed to have provided false, misleading or insufficient information or documentation

Visas may be cancelled in the following contexts:

• Breach of visa conditions – eg work restrictions or study and attendance obligations
• Breaches of good character requirements
• Termination of employment, in the case of employer sponsored visas
• Termination of relationship, in the case of partner visas
• Discovery that false, incorrect or misleading information was provided in support of an application
• Allegations that the marriage, de facto relationship or same sex relationship was not genuine or did not really exist
• Visas were improperly granted – eg the Immigration Department made an incorrect decision in granting the visa

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Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO)

VEVO stands for Visa Entitlement Verification Online. It is an online system that stores visa information of persons holding Australian visas. VEVO may be used by both visa holders and Australian organisations, such as employers, to check the details and entitlements of a visa.

Visa Holders

Registering in VEVO as a visa holder has many benefits:

• You do not need a visa label in your passport;
• You can check your visa details anytime you have internet access;
• You can check the progress of a visa or citizenship application online; and
• A potential employer can check your ability to work, reducing the time of the hiring process.
   

You can register for VEVO at the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) website.

Australian Organizations

Australian Organizations must be registered in VEVO to use it and must also first get the permission of the visa holder before they can access their visa information.
VEVO is useful in the process of hiring a new employee, enrolling a student in a program or giving someone a licence.
Organisations need an Australian Business Number (ABN) to be able to register in VEVO.

Registered Migrant Agent

Australian migration agents may also use VEVO. However, only those who are officially registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority may do so.

Students

Australian educational providers may use VEVO as well. It gives them easy access to check a student's visa entitlements such as how long they may study, if they may work, etc.

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Australian permanent residence

Australian migrants are residents of Australia that hold migrant or permanent resident visas and may remain in Australia indefinitely. While migrants are not citizens, they do have the option to become citizens after meeting the residency requirement. There are several ways to immigrate to Australia - through family, employment, refugee or humanitarian status.

Australian migrant visas are issued in increments of five years, subject to renewal. As long as your visa is valid, you may enter and leave Australia freely. Other benefits of permanent residency include:

• Right to work;
• Right to apply for citizenship;
• Right to public education;
• Right to sponsor relatives to immigrate to Australia; and
• Right to travel freely between Australia and New Zealand without a visa.

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Australian passports

The Australian Passports (Application Fees) Determination 2015 - F2015L01222 specifies the fees for Australian passport applications, certificates and documents of identity, travel, provisional travel documents and convention travel documents. 

The application costs vary according to various criteria, including:

• adult, child, age (over 75)
• length of validity
• regular or frequent traveller version
• priority and emergency processing requirement

The new pricing will commence from 1 October 2015.

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ATO data matching - Visa holders, Sponsors and Registered Migration Agents

The Commissioner for Taxation has gazetted a Notice of a Data Matching Program for visa holders. 

Gazette Notice of Data Matching Program - Immigration Visa Holders Gazette - C2015G01255  will allow the ATO to acquire the names, addresses and other details of visa holders, their sponsors and their migration agents for the 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years from the Department.

Information will be collected from an estimated 1 million visa holders and include:

• Address history for visa applicants and sponsors 


• Contact history for visa applicants and sponsors


• All visa grants


• Visa grant status by point in time


• Migration agents (visa application preparer who assisted or facilitated the processing of the visa)


• Address history for migration agents


• Contact history for migration agents


• All international travel movements undertaken by visa holders (arrivals and departures)


• Sponsor details (457 visa)


• Education providers (educational institution where the student visa holder intends to undertake their study)


• Visa subclass name.  

The government reports that this information will used to improve the integrity of visa program and compliance overall, reduce immigration fraud and assist in developing strategies to address effective operation and compliance.

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Update on Lee case: Subclass 457 review rights restored

A decision by Justice Street in Kandel v Minister for Immigration [2015] FCCA 2013 the Federal Circuit Court in Sydney last Friday has brought some resolution to the problems arising from the Lee case. The Lee case resulted in the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) deciding it did not have jurisdiction to review a Subclass 457 visa application refusal if an approved nomination was not in force when the review application was lodged.

Justice Street’s decision is that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) does have jurisdiction to consider an application for review of a Subclass 457 visa refusal if there is an application for a review or a nomination refusal that identifies the applicant.

Further analysis on this case will be available when it is published.

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APEC Business Travel Card - 5 year validity

The validity of APEC Business Travel Cards (ABTC) will be extended to five years for applications lodged on or after 1 September 2015.  

The ABTC will now offer bona fide business people a five year, short stay, multiple entry visa to other participating member economies and priority lane access at major airports.

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