International students who hope to secure permanent residence through the Australian Administrative region guarantee policy are considering initiating legal proceedings to prosecute the (ACT) government in the capital region for "misleading and deceiving". Their lawyer is very optimistic about the case.
According to the Canberra Times in mid-December 2018, a group of international students have commissioned Canberra Chambers law firm's Anforth (Allan Anforth) to handle the lawsuit. "in the framework of the Consumer Protection Act, there is a good prospect for international students to sue the ACT government for misguided and deceitful acts," Anforth said.
In July 2017, the ACT government introduced a Class 190 Administrative region Government-guaranteed Visa, which allows applicants to nominate overseas students who are not on the Australian Immigration Department's list of career needs to apply for the ACT Government's 190-state-guaranteed visa. Subject to: applicants must stay in Canberra for 12 months and have completed at least three-tier certificate courses issued by Canberra educational institutions.
The policy has attracted many students to Canberra private schools and hopes to realize their dream of immigration. Aware of the situation, the ACT government, without warning, quietly suspended the application for a Class 190 Administrative Government-guaranteed visa on June 29, 2018.
This led to a large number of international students drop out of school, leaving Canberra. The affected students protested outside the ACT government, but some students decided to sue the ACT government.
The ACT government will adopt a new immigration assessment system, although the government reopened its application for a class 190 district-guaranteed visa in November 2018. The new evaluation system selects potential targeted immigrants in accordance with the principle of merit selection and no longer accepts applications in chronological order. Under the new system, applicants will receive scores based on their work, length of residence in Australia and degree. The new system no longer has a minimum score to ensure that applicants receive an EOI invitation to apply for a visa.
2500 students from Canberra were studying in Canberra before the ACT government suspended guarantees for such visa applications and hoped to apply for permanent residence in Australia, Anforth said. Although the newly opened 190 categories of visas have added 600 immigration quotas, it has had little impact on the case.
Students can seek financial compensation from the ACT government to compensate for their financial losses in moving, attending school, missing visa applications and losing permanent status applications in Australia, Anforth said. Students involved in the proceedings will meet in early 2019 to decide what to do next.
