The New Student Visa System Part 2 (Direction 53)

Assessing the Genuine Temporary Entrant Criterion for Student Visa Applications

Prior to 5 November 2011 to be granted a Student Temporary visa you had to convince a case officer at DIAC that you were a “genuine student”.

Post 5 November 2011 to be granted a Student Temporary visa you have to convince a case officer at DIAC that you are BOTH a “genuine temporary entrant”  & “a genuine student”. (GTE & GS respectively from now on)

If you’re into reading the source material for this article you can find the Ministerial Direction under section 499 of the Migration Act 1958 (Direction 53) here…

http://www.immi.gov.au/gateways/agents/pdf/direction-53-assessing-gte.pdf

The first obvious pair of questions are –

Can you be a GTE while not being a GS?

Can you be a GS while not being a GTE?

The answer to both is YES. You can be a GTE by being, for example, a genuine visitor or a genuine temporary worker with no intention to study in Australia. I’d venture to suggest that the vast majority of recent foreign students have been GS but not GTE, as successful study was seen (and widely sold even by the Federal government) as a pathway to permanent residence in Australia.

Not any more it seems. If you harbour somewhere deep in your heart a desire to remain here permanently as a result of your successful studies, and a case officer, by applying the Direction 53 guidelines can divine this desire they must refuse your student visa application.

OK, that’s rather over dramatic but please consider the poor case officer. As they open your application either physically or electronically for a new student visa or even for a further student visa, running through their head must now be considerations of –

a)      Your potential circumstances in Australia

b)      The value of the course you’ve applied for to your future

c)      Your immigration history

d)     Your circumstances in your home country

e)      If a relative of yours has an ‘immigration history of concern’

f)       Information in statistical, intelligence and analysis reports on immigration fraud and immigration compliance

g)      If you’re a minor – the intentions of a parent, legal guardian or spouse.

h)      Finally they can request any additional information and/or further evidence considered appropriate.

WOW I’m glad all that is running around in my head!

I’m sorry but it is my view that this is a joke. Your therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist or even your life coach does not have this level of concern for your wellbeing. If this Direction is applied as it is written almost no one will be able to get a Student visa.

If we assume that the aim of this exercise is not to completely close down the foreign student market in Australia then case officers must be going to treat these guidelines via some completely subjective set of what can only be wildly inconsistent individual or small group notions, and that’s my problem with the whole GTE / Direction 53 approach. It is not possible to apply these guidelines consistently in single room full of case officers let alone in multiple Australian and foreign venues. However the case officer MUST COMPLY WITH THE DIRECTION. So what that means in Santiago will not be the same as in New Delhi or Shanghai or Melbourne – it cannot be.

Whose brilliant idea was it to create an impossible set of totally subjective criteria ranging over so many fields?  If students keep flowing into Australia case officers MUST be ignoring these guidelines. If they apply these guidelines I really don’t see how the vast majority of potential students can meet them.

Let me know what you think.

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