Immigration Ministerial Intervention

Ministerial Intervention is usually a last resort appeal to request for the Minister of Home Affairs to intervene in a person’s immigration matters and have a visa situation rectified.

Ministerial Intervention may be considered in the following situations:

•  Where an applicant has been unsuccessful in an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT)
• When an applicant wishes to exercise their discretion to waive particular conditions that may be imposed on an applicant from re-applying for a visa outside, or inside Australia during an application process

The Minister will generally consider the following when making a decision to intervene in a person’s migration circumstances:

•  Whether it is in public interest to intervene (e.g. whether Australia’s interests will be affected including whether there is economic, scientific, cultural or other benefit to Australia)
• If unique or exceptional circumstances are present (e.g. there are other aspects which were not previously considered including medical reasons- both physical and psychological)
• Whether there will be extreme hardship or irreversible harm caused to an Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident if the Minister did not intervene (e.g. partner, children, parents, persons in need of care etc)
• Whether there are non-refoulment obligations (e.g. protection requirements and whether the safety of returning to the applicant’s home country is compromised)
• Whether the visa application was refused due to an unintended law or condition (e.g. health requirements not being met, dependency (age) not met, English examination results not submitted at time of application or a change in the law)
• Whether the applicant is holding a valid visa in Australia (the Minister will not consider an application where the applicant holds no visa in Australia)

There are many ministerial intervention powers which the Minister may consider in a Ministerial Intervention request, which briefly include:

Consideration of a person’s circumstances where their visas were refused or cancelled (including medical treatment, protection, skilled visas, graduate visas, student visas, corporate visas, family visas)

• Request to make another application for a protection visa where there are exceptional circumstances which justify a new application being made
• A person who is in immigration detention and a visa grant is in the public interest
• Residence determination which permits the release of a person from closed detention to community detention
• Exemption from a Department process requiring offshore processing (e.g. applicant’s who have arrived to Australia via non-legal avenues (maritime/boat arrivals).

It is important to note that the Minister is not legally bound to consider intervening. However, Harbourside Legal Comeercial have been quite successful in Ministerial Intervention requests. Our team prepares carefully crafted, strong applications to the Ministerial Intervention Unit.

If you would like to discuss your prospects and the process of a Ministerial Intervention request, please contact Harbourside Legal Commercial and book in for a consultation.

We offer fixed price services in most immigration matters and aim to have a fast 48 hour turnaround for our clients. 

Contact us through our enquiry form or Phone 02 9262 3553.