Judicial Reviews

Visa appeals in the Federal Circuit Court

Judicial review of migration decisions is a process undertaken by the federal courts. It involves the court examining the lawfulness of a migration decision made by a decision-maker, usually the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Grounds for judicial review

For a judicial review application to be successful, the court must be convinced that there was an error of law regarding the jurisdiction of the decision in question. If the court agrees that there was a jurisdictional error, the court will consider the decision to be legally invalid

What outcomes can be expected from judicial review?

If you believe a jurisdictional error has arisen in your migration case, you can appeal against the decision by lodging an application for appeal to the Federal Circuit Court. If you are unhappy with the Federal Circuit Court’s decision and there are sufficient legal merits to your case, you can continue to appeal to the Federal Court and then to the High Court of Australia.

If the court decides a jurisdictional error has been made by the decision-maker, the court will rule that the original decision is void. As a result of this,

If the Court finds a jurisdictional error, it can:

Refer your case back to the decision maker, and.
Prevent the Minister from acting on the decision..

The Court cannot:

Reconsider the facts and reasons for your visa application.
Take new factual information into account (unless it is relevant to a question of whether the decision maker made a jurisdictional error), or
Grant you a visa

How to appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Australia (FCCA)?

Timeframe for an FCCA appeal (from AAT) is generally 35 days. It is necessary to establish jurisdictional error in order to have a successful outcome in an FCCA appeal.

Are you are looking to make any application for appeal against an immigration decision?

Please consider getting expert advice. We have assisted many applications for review at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and we have a very strong focus on fighting immigration appeals in the Federal Circuit Court and in the Federal Court of Australia.