The Department of Home Affairs provides the visa revocation notice to the person who conducted a criminal offense. They will also send you other documents, including a criminal record, and the Department of Home Affairs will request you to comment on that matter.
If your visa is not canceled, but you have received a warning letter, you need to be careful in the future. Your visa will surely get canceled with you get convicted for some other offenses again. So, you need to write to the DHA or Department of Home Affairs why your visa should not be canceled.
If you are dealing with such matters, you must speak with Immigration Lawyers Perth to help you. They will provide you with proper insights as to why you receive the visa revocation notice. The migration solicitors can help you in various other ways regarding visa revocation, and you find more information through this article.
What Is Visa Revocation?
When you are servicing a prison sentence currently and are also not an Australian citizen, there is a high chance that your visa will surely get canceled. On the other hand, the DHA or Department of Home Affairs will immediately cancel your visa if you are:
- Serving a full-time prison sentence.
- Have been sentenced to 12 months or more than imprisonment.
- Have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Serving death sentence.
- Found guilty of a sexual offence.
Will The Visa Get Cancelled?
If you have a criminal record or meet any of the criteria mentioned in the section above, the DHA will cancel your visa. This letter is also known as the Notice for Visa Cancellation. The letter will also carry information, where you will get the chance to “revoke” the decision made by DHA. Revoke here means requesting the Department of Home Affairs to reverse their decision to cancel your visa. But there are some strict limits for it as well.
What To Do If You Receive The Revocation Notice?
When a staff member of the DHA hands over the letter to you, you will only have 28 days to apply for revocation right from the date of the letter. On the other hand, if the Department of Home Affairs sends you the letter by post, you will have 35 days to apply for the revocation from the date of the letter. If you fail to apply for the cancellation within the given time, you will not get the opportunity to apply for it again.
You will surely get removed from Australian soil once your prison sentence is completed. Apart from that, even if your visa doesn’t get canceled mandatorily, DHA has many other ways to cancel your visa on “CHARACTER GROUNDS” and send you a Notice of Intention to consider canceling the visa. If you think that the DHA might send you these letters, you must immediately take legal advice.
What Will Happen After Applying For Revocation?
Once you apply for the revocation, the DHA will respond, notifying you that they have received your application. After that, the department will begin assessing whether or not you should get your visa back. If DHA carries information, which stands out as a disadvantage for your application, they will write to you and request you to comment on it.
Once they have completed the deciding work, the department will send you a letter and will tell you about their decision regarding your visa cancellation. While you wait for the response from the DHA, you will still get detained at the immigration center or the prison.
If you have already been out of prison or are living within the immigration center and the DHA has decided not to give back your visa, you will be removed from the country as quickly as possible.
What Can You Do If Your Revocation Gets Denied?
When your application for revocation gets denied by the DHA, you can contact a professional and qualified visa lawyer to receive proper help. They have the power to help you with such matters and will surely guide you throughout the entire process. They will provide you with legal advice and will tell you should be done when the application gets denied.
- But if the DHA staff member has decided to deny your revocation, you will have 9 days to apply to AAT or Administrative Appeal Tribunal. On the other hand, if the Ministry of Home Affairs has decided, you will not receive any help from AAT. You will get the chance to appeal at the Australian court regarding the Ministry’s decision.
- Remember, challenging a decision on revocation might be tricky, for which you must seek legal advice as soon as possible.
How To Obtain Legal Help?
You must get in touch with professional attorneys who deals with visa cancellation-related cases. They will provide you will preliminary advice about your rights. You must apply for revocation with immediate effect when it’s taking a bit of time to speak with the attorney. There are two ways through which you can contact the lawyers, which are by telephone and appointment.
If you are currently in prison, you can request the prison officer to book an appointment with the attorneys to receive your legal service on time. The lawyer will take responsibility and make all the arrangements for a video conference. On the other hand, you can also contact the lawyer through their given contact number.
You can state all your concerns to them and also provide information about your current situation. Doing so will enable the lawyers to act immediately and provide you with the help you need.
Final Thoughts
When you commit a severe offense in Australia, there is a high chance you might get your visa canceled by the DHA. That’s why you must get in touch with an immigration or visa attorney who assists you. They have the skills, knowledge, and understanding in dealing with prisoners whose visas have been canceled mandatorily and will provide a positive outcome.