“On the papers” assessments for student visa refusals coming
/The Administrative Review Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2026 (Cth) amends both the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth) and the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) to provide efficiencies to the review process of merits review decisions, including migration and citizenship refusals. It is especially targeted at review applications for refused student visas.
It is no shock to anyone that the Administrative Review Tribunal (‘ART’) is drowning with an increase in applications. This is especially so with migration refusals as tightening up on policy, and therefore an increased number of refusals, naturally leads to an increased number of review applications. This is despite the appointment of more members to handle the caseload.
In the 2024-25 annual report, migration and protection visa applications constituted 88% of on-hand applications, some 99,462 of a total 112,591 applications. The ART also admitted that only 47 per cent of new and on-hand migration applications within 12 months of lodgement were finalised citing a substantial increase in applications to review student and protection visa refusals.
A way to improve the speed of decision-making is to forgo a hearing if possible when a decision can be made without one.
A decision made without a hearing is commonly known as being “on the papers”. The Act provides for more “on the papers” assessments, but only where:
it appears the issues for determination can be adequately determined,
it is reasonable in the circumstances to decide without holding a hearing, and
the parties are given a reasonable opportunity to make submissions.
The ART must obviously consider any submissions it receives before deciding.
Changes to the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) will create a set of laws that restrict some review applications to only on the papers.
This will apply to review decisions of temporary visas prescribed in the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) (‘the Regulations’). The explanatory memorandum envisages that the primary focus will be on student visas, but other temporary visas may be added in the future.
There may be circumstances where an application will fall out of being an application on the papers, and this will also be clarified in the Regulations.
To prevent legal challenges to on the paper decisions, an exhaustive statement of the requirements of the natural justice hearing rule is provided, meaning that the right to be heard will be satisfied without a hearing. To do this, the ART must allow an applicant to present their case on the ‘relevant issue’ in the matter.
If no submissions are received within the period given to the applicant, then the ART can dismiss the application without a hearing.
This new rule will apply to all new applications made and those yet to be decided.
As it is likely that most student visa review applications were refused because the applicant did not meet the genuine student requirement, the onus will fall heavily on the applicant’s written skills to convince the ART.