2016-Jul 29: Onshore lodgement of applications that should have been submitted offshore

Visa Pak 270: Guidelines for Immigration Officers on how to proceed when applications were lodged onshore when the client was offshore.

Visa Paks

29 July 2016

Onshore lodgement of applications that should have been submitted offshore

Staff from onshore offices met recently to discuss and agree on a consistent approach to lodging applications. At this meeting the lodgement process for applications received at onshore offices that should have been submitted at an offshore office was discussed.

In the 12 months to 30 April 2016 there were 668 applications received onshore that should have been submitted offshore. 368 of these had a fee taken onshore and 18 were later Returned Failed Lodgements (RFL) by the offshore office.

While applicants should still submit their applications at the office nearest to where the principal applicant resides (as per R2.10 & E4.15 ‘Where to Lodge an Application’), this advice outlines the agreed approach for when onshore offices receive applications that should have been lodged offshore.

Agreed approach

  1. Onshore offices will check to see that the application has met standard mandatory lodgement requirements.
  2. Any regional specific lodgement requirements will not be applied by onshore offices.
  3. Applications will be RFL’d if they do not meet mandatory lodgement requirements (as per point 1).
  4. Applications that meet mandatory lodgement requirements will be ‘Tendered’ and have the fee payment taken.

These applications will not be ‘Accepted’ in AMS.

This is to allow the offshore office the ability to apply any local lodgement requirements once they have received the application and to RFL the application if appropriate.

Offshore offices that do decide to RFL will need to arrange for a fee refund. Our advice is to make every effort to obtain any missing documentation before deciding to RFL in order to minimise the extra work associated in arranging refunds.

Note: Please remember to check the location of the principal applicant and their citizenship at the time the application was submitted to ensure the correct fee is charged as per previous advice.

Review

Some onshore offices were concerned that this approach may increase the number of applications lodged that do not follow the intent of instructions R2.10 and E4.15. Therefore the impacts of this approach will be reviewed after 6 months.