Question: How do you lose your Partner visa at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) when you are in a genuine relationship and there is no reason why you should not be granted such a visa?

Answer: Rely on a friend to assist you rather than going to a lawyer.

On 25 November 2020, we received judgment in a Federal Court appeal in the matter of H v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2020] FCA 1697. Unfortunately, we lost this appeal and our client has 28 days to leave Australia, leaving behind a wife and child.

We put weeks of work into this matter; we considered hundred’s of pages of evidence and did everything we could to identify good legal arguments for our client. The main issue, however, was that this was the first time he had been legally represented. He had not been represented for the first instance appeal in the Federal Circuit Court and he had, most importantly, not been represented in the AAT.

My client was in the AAT after being refused a permanent partner visa. He had already been granted a temporary partner visa and had been living with his wife and daughter in Australia for some time. Unfortunately, when time came for his permanent partner visa application, their relationship had become complicated; there was a complex financial relationship and some infidelity. This all had to be carefully explained and it was not. The Department refused to grant the permanent partner visa.

The AAT reviewed the Department’s decision. Instead of a lawyer, or a migration agent, my client was assisted by one of his friends. While his friend was not to blame for anything that happened, this meant:

1. My client did not present all the evidence of his relationship he could have.

2. My client did not adequately explain his complicated financial relationship with his wife and family.

3. My client was totally unprepared for the AAT’s questioning and did not come across credibly or reliably.

4. My client did not call witnesses to corroborate the fact that he was in a relationship with his wife.

5. My client did not have the benefit of submissions made by an experienced representative about the facts and the law.

The AAT found against my client and refused to grant him a permanent partner visa. My client appealed this decision, twice, but unfortunately there was no jurisdictional error by the AAT. The appeal courts are only interested in legal errors, they don’t give you another opportunity to get a visa or present further evidence. The moral of the story is that people need to be represented before the AAT, sometimes it is too late to go to a lawyer afterwards.