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Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) – Migration and Refugee Appeals – Caseload, Waiting Times, Delays, Statistics
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has released their caseload statistics covering the period up to 28th February 2018.
There are currently 25,254 ACTIVE cases pending before the AAT Tribunal.
From July 2017 to February 2018 – 16,558 appeal-applications have been lodged.
From July 2017 to February 2018 – only 7,388 appeal-applications have been decided.
So applications are being lodged at TWICE the number of cases being decided, thus adding to the long queue of pending cases! This gives a clearance rate of only 45%!
Migration appeal-applications are up by 35% this year – indicating that Dept of Immigration is refusing many more applications than before, where applicants feel the decision is unfair and appealable.
Migration visa-appeals are unsuccessful 39% of the time. They are successful 28% of the time (“set aside”) and 21% of the cases are being withdrawn before the AAT Hearing.
Migration lodgements are mainly coming from NSW (42%), then Victoria (31%). Perth area lodges about 10% of the appeal-applications. Pie-chart is attached.
Refugee lodgements are mainly coming from NSW (41%) and Victoria (41%). Perth area lodges about 11% of the appeal-applications. Pie-chart is attached.
Regarding refugee appeal cases, maximum cases are coming from Malaysia (4,225) out of which half seem to be lodged in Victoria (2,266).
Top 10 countries for refugee-appeals are Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Fiji – in that order.
Success Rates -Migration decisions by case category:
Partner visa appeal-applications were most successful – at 50% “set aside” rate.
Followed by Visitor visa appeal-applications – at 36% “set aside” rate.
Followed by Family visa appeal-applications and “Skill-Linked” applications – at 31% “set aside” rate.
Followed by Temporary Work visa appeal-applications – at 23% “set aside” rate.
Success Rates -Refugee decisions by case category:
Afghanistan refugee-applications were most successful – at 59% “set aside” rate.
Followed by Iran refugee-applications – at 33% “set aside” rate.
Followed by Egypt refugee-applications – at 27% “set aside” rate.
Followed by Iraq refugee-applications – at 23% “set aside” rate.
Processing Times -Migration appeals:
Nomination & Sponsor Approval appeals seem to be taking the longest – average 440 days (14.5 months)
Followed by Student visa appeals – average 393 days (13 months)
Followed by Family visa appeals – average 371 days (12 months)
A detailed table is appended below.
This information has been sourced from AAT.
I hope that our clients and readers will find this analysis useful. EasyMigrate handles a lot of AAT Appeals each year – please contact us for any assistance you may require by emailing reception@easymigrate.com or calling +61 8 9221 4888