Appealed a miscalculation
South Africa
Australia
Migration Agent
Myer Lipschitz
,
Kane Downs
Client
DB
Overview
The Department of Home Affairs incorrectly declined DB’s general skilled migration visa application because they miscalculated the number of points to be awarded for skilled work experience relevant to the nominated occupation.
1
We attempted to get in touch with the case officer
Once a decision is made on a visa application by the Department there are no automatic appeal rights. Only certain types of visa applications have appeal rights and the Department considers the decision is final unless it was made as a result of jurisdictional error.
The case officer who made the decision refused to acknowledge the error and emails to senior management in the Department failed to elicit a response.
2
Contacted the skills assessing authority
We had to contact the skills assessing authority to write a letter to the Department explaining to them the date DB was considered skilled and sent a copy of this letter to the Department. Within 24 hours we received a response from the Department acknowledging their error and reversing the decision.
The Outcome
Visa application approved shortly thereafter.
I was in South Africa at the time all of this was unfolding and remember meeting with DB and his wife and having to break the bad news that the Department had declined the visa in error. DB to his credit never wavered in his belief in us that a positive outcome would be achieved.