suraweeraneil

That doesn't make sense. Even Australian citizens cannot demand that Australian immigration lets non immediate family members into the country. Never has. And I doubt very much that the average taxpayer would even be aware of this legislation, never mind care about it.

Frankly, I do not know to differentiate this. My sponsor is my brother, Am I a non immediate family member or not?

You are spot on mate. There has to be a clear objective which is to get DIBP to process all affected applications within a certain time frame, say between one to two years. Otherwise you will only end up wasting time and money. The last thing you want is a drawn out legal battle with DIBP. May I also remind members that Senator Cash didn't just go to sleep one night and decided to apply Cap and Cease the next morning. She ought to have consulted her legal team and advisers to ensure she would be acting within the law of Australia.

 

There is no questions that you guys are hard done by in this case. However, it doesn't guarantee you will get the result you seek in court. Ask yourself this question, could the money needed for the class action be better spent on finding other avenues to migrate to Australia or perhaps to another country?

If they do, then Government should not loose any case in courts. Even with the asylum seekers.

in our case it is not futile because we are family sponsored by Australian citizens and our sponsors, Australian tax payers and voters are ready to support and fight with us. Plus, they processed all other applications except for offshore family sponsored, even most offshore independent applicants have got their grants. And they have made us wait up to 7 years, thereby making us Ineligible in terms of age to apply. they wasted our time. and if they can process other Category 5 applicants, they should give us a fair chance too!

 

Kwazii Cat and westwoodwizard

you are welcomed to share your views with us, and yes, we are a bit charged up, but personally i think a different point of view is a welcomed thing as it keeps you grounded so westwoodwizard, your comments make a lot of sense, i fully understand them and appreciate them. I am glad you have moved on, sadly I waited...

At the moment we have nothing final, except that we intend to fight with the best means available to us, as you said research is needed, so that's been done about lawyers and possibility of action and outcomes. in the meantime we appreciate all the support we are getting, we are trying to generate awareness of what has been done to us through media, social media and almost all of us have sent multiple mails individually to all possible officials and departments,

Personally i have nothing more to lose, but I do have a chance to win - get a grant if we plan and act wisely - as for spending more money, well, money can be earned again but for those who have grown older in these 7 years, we can't get points for our age if we apply again so this is our only chance and we plan to take it.

I fully agree with you.

As mentioned though, even if they agree to reverse the decision, I strongly suspect that they will lump you in with the other family visas and give you a processing time of 56 years

That means you believe that we have a chance to win. great,

I do not agree with cap and cease and the requirements to get a refund that somebody described really are absurd, bordering on criminal in fact - I have never felt the need to store photocopies of my old credit cards!

 

But I do feel that legal action is futile. How can non citizens and non-residents take an unrelated country to court and demand that they process a visa application? I don't think anybody succeeded last time there was a cap and cease? As hard as it may be, the best thing to do is probably just accept it and move on with life.

That has to be decided by a lawyer. If he feels we do not have a better standing at the courts, Our sponsors can come forward and fight the battle.

As far as I know, last time nobody challenge it in courts. Only one person complaint to the tribunal which has no power to overthrow ministers decision.

Also they introduced cap and cease for the applicants who applied within 2 years of the effective date. So, they might not bother to challenge it.

Sometimes I suspect DIBP officials logged in this forum as applicants to discourage us moving forward . Anyway as I mentioned earlier, we have to give it a try. As you say It is worth either we win or loose.

So then why did you and others not pursue a legal option at least three years ago if not 5 years ago whenever it became clear to everybody that new laws were being applied retroactively? How is now the time? Even if you successfully challenge the cap and cease, you simply revert back to priority processing and most people impacted the most were 176 FS offshore which were not getting processed at all during the last 6 years until only maybe recently. At that pace, it might have been another 10 years, 20 years...who knows...

 

The cap and cease at least allows for a possible recovery of fees paid for an application that the Australian government had no sincere interest in processing anyway prior to the cap and cease announcement.

 

I understand the desire for legal action in this matter..but not because of cap and cease but rather the whole concept of applications not being processed under the law as it existed at the time.

We did not think of a legal battle earlier, because we thought they will process our applications one fine day. But now our hopes are gone.

Now is the time to fight this. I will contribute to this wholeheartedly even if they do not consider my application, but some of our team members ,at least 1 of us get the benefit of our effort.

I am in need to migrate to Australia. But if I can become a seed and help someone else , I would not be reluctant to do so. Even if they decide to process 10 applications per year, 10 of us will full fill their desire.

I do not try to offend you. I respect your view. At the same time I wish to support this fight and become a candle even to future applicants.

FYI ITS NOT over as yet. last time cap and cease was successful they the people accepted the decision and hence were defeated. I DONT want to dishearten anybody but fact is a fact. It's over for people who accept refunds. Consulted with one of the best barristers of Australia and he has won similar cases in NZ and Australia too. He reverted back that if you read the cap and cease wordings on border.gov.au website its mentioning for financial year. Will be fighting now the case in the court so I would urge whosoever wants to join they would have to take decision fast. The more we are the better the situation. Barrister reverted back that we need to be at least 100 people to make impact may be more. Also, he reverted we have bright chances of winning and that am thankful to Ilaria for supporting us always. At this hour, I will say that don't loosen your heart I know i have been in this situation just like you but that doesn't mean I will take my defeat this way. Come together and fight and win.

 

We need to take decision soon how many are we as we need to file the case ASAP. Thanks and Regards

 

Gagandeep Singh

You can count on me. I will join the club to fight against this unfair decision. I believe we have to get at least 100 members together. A good lawyer in Australia would charge minimum $5000 for 1 sitting. So with more than 100 members it will not cost a lot individually. This is not everything. Will take this as 1 option.

As somebody mentioned, they cannot take our 6 years of waiting just like that. This can be serious violation of our rights.

Only hope is that they will have a new immigration minister with their new Government and the new minister will cease this

They can send all the letters they want...even if it worked and the part about canceling applications is not implemented...processing 10,000 remaining applications at the rate of less than 300 per year...will take a long time...everybody just got screwed even more so than before..so...I guess everybody should wait to see if they implement it..if they do wait it out until June 30, 2016...and if you are not one of the lucky 200 plus that they have allocated...well...you have your final answer...application will be canceled and you will have to re-apply under a new visa category...

This is really a serious situation. They have implemented a similar program in June 2009 and refunded the application fee of the applicants whose applications have not been processed.

I think this time they just refuse our applications without a single cent.

''5. Section 39(2) of the Act, when read with this determination and the relevant criterion for each class, has the effect that when grants of that relevant subclass have reached the ministerially determined maximum, any outstanding applications for visas of that subclass are taken not to have been made.''

As you mentioned they are going to refuse our applications. Only 36 lucky winners will be there