Migration Regulations 1994

For the purposes of section 52 of the Act (which deals with the way in which an applicant or interested person must communicate with the Minister), an applicant or interested person must communicate with the Minister about a visa application in the way provided by this regulation.

Except as provided by subregulation (3), the communication must be in writing.

The communication may be oral if it is:

a communication about an application for a bridging visa; or

an enquiry about the stage reached in the consideration of a visa application; or

an oral application; or

a communication about an application for an Electronic Travel Authority (Class UD) visa.

A written communication must include:

the applicant’s full name, as set out in the application; and

the applicant’s date of birth; and

one of the following:

the applicant’s client number;

the Immigration file number;

the number of the receipt issued by Immigration when the visa application was made; and

if the application was made outside Australia, the name of the office at which the application was given to the Minister.

Subject to subregulation (6), a document accompanying a written communication must be:

the original; or

a copy of the original certified in writing to be a true copy by:

a Justice of the Peace; or

a Commissioner for Declarations; or

a person before whom a statutory declaration may be made under the Statutory Declarations Act 1959; or

a registered migration agent whose registration is not:

suspended; or

subject to a caution; or

if the copy is certified in a place outside Australia:

a registered migration agent mentioned in subparagraph (iv); or

a person who is the equivalent of a Justice of the Peace or Commissioner for Declarations in that place.

Section 303 of the Act provides that the Migration Agents Registration Authority may suspend the registration of a registered migration agent or caution him or her. If a registered migration agent is subject to a suspension of his or her registration, or a caution, particulars of the suspension or caution are shown on the Register of Migration Agents: subsection 287(2) of the Act. These particulars must be removed once the suspension or caution is no longer in effect: subsection 287(5) of the Act.

If an applicant (other than an applicant for a Visitor (Class TV) visa) or interested person is required or permitted to produce a document in connection with the visa application, the document and the written communication that accompanies it may be in the form of an electronic communication only if:

the document is in a class of documents specified in a legislative instrument made by the Minister as documents that may be sent by electronic communication; or

the Minister has permitted the applicant or interested person to send the document by electronic communication.

For subregulation (6), if the Minister requires an applicant or interested person to give the Minister the original of a document that has already been given by electronic communication:

the giving of the original, otherwise than by electronic communication, is a prescribed way of communication; and

subregulation (5) applies to the original of the document.

An applicant for a Visitor (Class TV) visa must communicate with the Minister about the application:

by electronic communication; or

in another form permitted by the Minister.

This regulation is subject to sections 56 and 58 of the Act, which provide that the Minister may specify the way in which additional information or comments about an application may be given by an applicant. If the Minister specifies a way in which further information or comments must be given for the purposes of either of those sections, the information or comments must be given in that way. Regulation 2.13 then does not apply.