Most student visa refusal reviews are now decided without a hearing

The Tribunal announced on 1 June 2026 that changes to the Migration Act 1958 affecting some student visa reviews come into effect today, and that the changes require the Tribunal to make decisions about reviews of most student visa refusals without holding an oral hearing.

On the Tribunal’s own statement of it, a case must be decided without a hearing where the applicant has already applied for review of a student visa refusal but the case has not yet been constituted to a member, or where a new application for review of a student visa refusal is lodged on or from 1 June 2026. Hearings already listed proceed as planned, and the Tribunal reserves a narrow category of exceptions.

What it changes in practice

Where there is no hearing, the written material is the case. There is no opportunity to explain a gap in evidence in answer to a question from the member, and no chance to correct a misunderstanding once the decision is being written. The submission and the documents filed with it carry the entire weight.

That makes the early part of a student review the decisive part: identifying the criterion the delegate was not satisfied about, and putting the evidence that goes to it on the file in a form that can be read once, in order, without a person present to explain it.

A limit on this note

The Tribunal’s announcement does not identify the amending Act by its short title or number, and we have not located the amending instrument itself. What is set out above is the Tribunal’s own description of the change, attributed to it. We have not read the amending provision.