Anyone in Australia who has had a visa refused or cancelled and who does not hold a substantive visa is not allowed to lodge an onshore visa application (apart from those visas specified in Regulation 2.12, namely spouse, protection or medical treatment visas).

If you are affected by Section 48 of the Migration Act, please complete our survey -  Help us, help you.  

The impact of Section 48 of the Migration Act and international travel bans means that many people who would ordinarily be able to travel offshore to lodge a valid visa application for permanent residency in Australia are unable to do so. In many cases this has resulted in people being unable to lodge a permanent Australian visa.  

The Department of Home Affairs and the Federal Government have so far ignored this problem and countless requests to change and fix this problem.  They have the power to change this, simply by adding skilled migration visas to Regulation 2.12, but so far they have not.  

We know they can change legislation, rules and requirements for example changes to student visa holders eligibility to meet the requirements to apply for a 485 visa if they study offshore, or applying for a 485 from outside of Australia, or changes to student visa holders ability to work full time in approved sectors.

There is absolutely no reason why the Department could not temporarily amend Regulation 2.12 to allow onshore applications to be made for a range of skilled visas, thus providing people nominated by a State or Territory Government for a 491 or 190 or anyone who has received in invitation to apply for a skilled migration visa to apply onshore if they are affected by Section 48. 

Please support this petition to change the impact of Section 48 of the Migration Act by urgently adding skilled migration visa to Regulation 2.12