There are devastating effects from pandemic on migration and the education industry. Some students would be unable to continue their study in Australia or concede to accept the online course. More visa applicants will need wait much longer for the invitation to come. Most business people abandon their business plan because they do not have a visa or entry permit.
However, even under pandemic ,not everyone is in the same boat, some lucky illegal noncitizens in Australia have received once in a lifetime opportunities to rectify their visa status. This pandemic could be a very compelling reason to overcome a lot of hurdles setted by Migration law. if used properly, they can even take advantage of the compelling reason to apply for a permanent visa, i.e partner visa. Here are some examples we helped our clients recently.
Ms A. ,with a very complex background, has been in Australia for many years without a visa. She has a Australian partner. According to the Migration law related to her case, in most circumstances, she can only apply for and get a visa offshore. i.e. Leave Australia to make the following visa application. The offshore visa application normally takes more than a year. Ms A and her partner cannot accept the fact that they have to be apart for a very long time. So she stayed in Australia despite knowing it was wrong. This pandemic offers her a compelling reason not to leave and make the partner visa in Australia. She lodged her visa application in Australia and was granted a bridging visa so that she did not have to be separated from her partner for a day.
Mr B., holding a tourist visa , came to Australia to visit her partner. In order to force him to leave Australia after the travel, the Department of immigration put a 8503 no further stay condition on her visa. He planned to leave Australia and lodge the partner visa offshore. Because the international flights became rare due to the pandemic, he took advantage of this opportunity to seek waive of the condition 8503 and lodged his partner visa application. He was granted a bridging visa to stay in Australia until the partner visa application is decided.
Mr C. holding a bridging visa from appeal after visa refusal. He met his partner during this period. Instead of having to lodge the partner visa offshore, he made good use of this pandemic opportunity and lodged an onshore partner visa. He could continue to stay in Australia to wait for the partner visa to come.
Opportunities like this created by pandemic are very rare. If properly used, we can achieve some mission impossible in an ordinary period.