Section 39 of the Migration Act 1958 provides the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship with the power to set a maximum number of visas of a certain class which may be granted during a particular financial year.

The Minister announced on 8th February 2010 that he would set a maximum number on the amount of offshore GSM visa applications made before 1st September 2007 which could be granted. This decision was made because the number of places available in the Skilled Migration Program to those who are not sponsored by an Australian employee is steadily declining, while the number of pending GSM visa applications continues to grow.

To address this imbalance, and promote the governments priority to support demand driven migration, the Minister decided to ‘cap’ the number of offshore GSM visa grants available for pending applications made before 1st September 2007.

Once this maximum number is reached, all further applications awaiting a decision will be considered not to have been made and will be returned to the applicant or their authorised recipient. This includes lodged offshore GSM applications currently waiting to be considered by the Migration Review Tribunal. Note that applicants affected by this ‘cap’ are entitled to reapply for any of the current GSM visa subclasses providing they meet current legislative requirements.

All affected applicants whose visa applications are returned to them due to the maximum number of granted visas being reached, will be refunded the visa application charge (VAC).  Unfortunately, associated expenses incurred for things such as police checks, medical exams or English language tests cannot be refunded because these payments were not made to the Australian government.

Haag Walker Lawyers are happy to offer all visa applicants affected by these changes a thorough and competent assessment of their personal situation, as well as determine any further options for migration to Australia. Please see our services web page where you can choose which of our extensive range of migration services best suits your particular concerns or needs.