Once a visa is cancelled by the Department there is in
most cases a right to seek a revocation of that decision, and because of the
large numbers of cancellations that have been made there is a correspondingly
large number of revocations being sought with the result that significant
delays in processing are being experienced.
A recent report in The Age newspaper (10 January 2017)
indicated that the number of people deported from Australia because of serious
criminal convictions has increased more than tenfold since 2014 – with a huge
spike in the number of New Zealanders being sent home.
The same report indicated that the Commonwealth Ombudsman
has recently concluded an investigation into the treatment of persons who have
had their visas cancelled and found serious delays in deciding revocation
requests meant former prisoners were spending long periods in the above in
immigration detention. Not surprisingly, a spokesman for the Minister said the
government made no apologies for strengthening deportation laws to ‘further
protect the Australian community’.
When making a revocation request to the Department it is
necessary to carefully consider what information will be included. Issues such
as whether there are children or other family members in Australia whose
interests will be affected need to be carefully canvassed and focused
submissions need to be prepared in a clear and cogent way.
While it seems that there will be no relief in terms of
delays in processing, persons seeking revocation of a cancellation know that
they will have ample time in which to prepare proper submissions and should use
this time to their best advantage.
