Tribunal Member: Nicole Burns
The Department of Home Affairs (The Department) requires non-citizens to provide correct information in their visa applications and passenger cards. The provision of incorrect information or bogus documents may lead to visa cancellation.[1] Once aware, applicants are also required to notify the Department of any incorrect information and any relevant changes in their circumstances.
In this case, the Department cancelled the applicant’s protection visa as they found that he had provided incorrect information in his visa application. The AAT decided that it was not necessary to have a hearing in this instance because it was able to determine on the papers that the visa should not be cancelled.
The applicant declared that he feared persecution in Pakistan from extremists because he was a Hazara Shia and the son of a wealthy official in Quetta. Having been granted protection, the applicant was alleged by an immigration inspector to have returned to Pakistan after his baggage was searched at the Airport on his return to Australia. The Department concluded that the applicant provided incorrect answers to a number of questions in his application for a protection visa, when he claimed to fear returning to Pakistan.
The AAT was not satisfied that the applicant’s possible return to Pakistan for less than three months in 2014 meant that he did not hold a well-founded fear of persecution at the time of his protection visa application or that the applicant’s return to Pakistan constituted the provision of incorrect information.
The AAT set aside the Department’s decision and substituted a decision not to cancel the applicant’s protection visa.
Read the full decision on AustLII.